What We Make of It
by Zentrodie
Summary: The wedding is planned and everybody wants a piece of the action. But not all is happy and sunshine as the event draws near
1. Welcome to Tokyo3

Standard Disclaimer  
  
Well if you know me, you'll know I've been under a lot of stress lately. I have a major project going on and we, my group and I, just gave our first presentation. Didn't go well...not well at all. In site of that my confidence in writing has taken a hit.  
  
So rather than ruin one of my good stories, well good in my mind, I've decided to make this one.  
  
Don't expect much other than to laugh ^_^ Oh and by the way I don't own any of the material I borrowed from for what this will become.  
  
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What We Make of It Chapter 1 – Welcome to Tokyo-3  
  
To those who knew him, and that was a very select number, Shinji Ikari was a very somber child. With no mother, and being abandoned by his father at a young age, his young heart desired nothing more than acceptance and a little love. He didn't do anything to get such things so they didn't show up in his life.  
  
However when a letter from his father came for him, his heart soared. 'Maybe he wants to start over. We can be a family again. I promised I wasn't going to tell anybody about the leather dominatrix suit he hand in his closet.'  
  
Re-reading the letter that simply said. "Get your ass to Tokyo-3." Many people would have been discouraged from a happy reception. Shinji however, wasn't the most intelligent people so he thought his father was being 'creative.' Packing his bags and receiving a hefty bill from his teacher for room and board, the young man made his way to the city in which his father ruled with an iron fist.  
  
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"Wonder why this place is so quiet," Shinji said to himself as he walked out of the used bookstore. Having spent the majority of the day wandering the gigantic city that was Tokyo-3 as he waited for some Misato Katsuragi to pick him up, Shinji spent his little remaining money on a few Shoujo manga and sat down to read.  
  
Taking the second letter he received out of his satchel as he put his new copy of 'Pita Ten' down, he also wondered what an Angel was and why after hearing the speakers declare one was coming the majority of the populous either screamed, wet themselves, thanked Kami-sama for getting them the hell out of the town, or a combination of acts.  
  
'Her note said she'd pick me up here at 10 a.m. but its already 5 p.m.' He sighed for the umpteenth time in the past few hours. 'Being depressed is starting to take a lot of energy,' he chuckled at that thought as his eyes wandered over the attached picture of today's driver. The woman was unaccountably beautiful with lavish dark purple hair, paltry lips, chocolate eyes, and well he couldn't help but follow the arrow that pointed to her ample bust.  
  
Having a non-existant sex life, the boy blushed softly as his steroid infused conscience told him he had done a bad thing. As his mind berated him for acting the pervert, his eyes naturally drifted downward. Spotting a few words he missed before on the corner of the photo that simply read, 'If that doesn't work to convince you, turn over.'  
  
'She wouldn't have...she couldn't have...maybe.' His chronically ill libido squeaked into his stream of thought. Could this woman have sent an even 'spicier' picture to insure he'd at least visit his father? Swallowing heavily he fumbled over his own fingers to turn the picture over, his breath bated and coming out in rasps, 'What could it be?'  
  
He dropped the photo as streams of tears started cascading down his face. The photo was his father holding a kitten at gunpoint with a caption saying 'Come or the cat gets it.' About this time Shinji started to get the feeling that maybe he should have stayed with his teacher. 'Sure he made me cook, clean, wash, assist his wife in Kami-sama knows what, and well basically be his slave, but at least I knew what to expect.'  
  
A low rumble caught his attention and he swiveled his head to the left to see what had caused such a response. 'Is that a girl?' His eyes focused in on what looked to be a young girl about his age. "Hey! What's going on?" he yelled out to the girl that was now pointing skyward behind him. Following her extended middle finger, and hoping she was pointing and not just flipping him off, he saw what appeared to be a giant foot.  
  
Trying to be rational, he turned to ask the girl for clarification, "THE HELL IS THAT THING?" He was met however with empty space. 'Either she can run at the speed of light or she wasn't there.' Turning to the now aerial giant foot, that looked to be positioning itself right above him, Shinji found only one word seemed to fit. "Damn."  
  
Before he was turned into human bean paste however, a car sped over to him and after hitting him at about ten miles per hour and knocked him out of the way. Getting to his feat, Shinji was greeted by the face of Ms. Katsuragi as she yelled at him to get into the car. "Miss could you unlock the door?"  
  
"No time for that, climb in the window!" Misato replied as she put her car into reverse and tore off back towards the Geo-Front as Shinji's body was half in half out of her window. Finding reverse not the quickest means of escape, Misato spun her car around and launched the young man's face directly into her lap. "No time for that now either," she said with a little more emphasis on 'now' than the boy that rescinded into the 'shotgun' position had liked. "Name's Misato Katsuragi, pleased to meet you," she finalized by extending her hand.  
  
Had she not been driving over ninety, the giant monster been trying to squash them, or the idea of the phantom girl been in his mind Shinji would have been thrilled to touch such a ladies hand. However the need for survival over powered him and he screamed, "Tree!"  
  
Turning from the 'pick up' she noticed that she was indeed headed directly towards a rather large tree. 'Can't have an accident yet! I just got this car." Taking a quick left to both avoid the incoming death and to get into the side street heading towards her destination, she again felt the boy collide with her. "Either you put a seat belt on or your taking me out to dinner after this little 'date.'"  
  
Following Misato's advice, Shinji put his seat belt on and turned to look for there would be killer. Seeing what looked like a mess of black licorice and a poorly made mask, he choose not to look anymore. "What is that thing Ms. Katsuragi?"  
  
"It's an Angel," she said offhandedly to him as she pulled out her phone. 'Damn city streets all look the same! How am I supposed to get him back to Nerv at this rate.' Looking through her phone number library, she took Shinji's frantic screams to mean it was time to turn. 'Can't call Ritsuko, she'll use me for an experiment. Maya is well Maya shouldn't be at Nerv anyway. Ah Motoko! He's so hard up for a date he'd cut his hands off to help me!'  
  
'I really do hate my life right about now,' Shinji thought, as Misato's car seemed to defy physics and continue to accelerate past the human reaction tolerances. 'All I wanted to do was talk to father and maybe...maybe he'll accept me back.'  
  
"Yeah Motoko I have him," Misato lowered her voice to be as sultry as possible, "But he wasn't where I told him to be," she winked at the boy next to her; surely he'd back her up if questioned. 'If he knows what's good for him he will.' Looking at the street again she questioned the easily manipulated bridge crewmember on how to get back to base. Hanging up her phone she turned to the boy, "Your Shinji Ikari right?" A moment of fear entered her as the thoughts of all the other young boys she had thought were her target earlier in the day. As he nodded she noticed something else, "If you weren't so pale I'd think you were kinda cute. What's wrong?"  
  
She followed his line of sight, "OH SHIT! They're going to nuke it now?" What followed next could have been considered groping or manhandling as Misato threw the car into park, threw herself over the boy, and wrapped him in her arms. Shinji, again if he were able of conscious thought would have felt the woman's chest pressed against him, tried not to think of anything.  
  
After the rumbling stopped, Misato looked around and found that she was hugging the boy, "Guess that got a little scary. Boy Shinji you really do know how to please a woman." Removing her arms from his body she crawled out of the car. Her body still trembling from the after shocks of the car role, Misato dusted herself off.  
  
Following behind her, Shinji tried to come to terms with his first near death experience. "What do we do now?" he asked Misato as she wandered from car to car gathering whatever she could find.  
  
"We find provisions and then we get to base," she didn't really say how to get back however.  
  
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After a rather extended gathering session, that didn't end until Misato broke into a lavish boutique for what she deemed 'appropriate business attire', did they get the car back on its tires and head towards their destination. "Do you really need all that stuff?" Shinji asked a bit dubious.  
  
Smiling to her companion, "As Captain of Nerv tactical I need all these things to succeed in my mission."  
  
"I can understand the batteries and even the dress but what about the jewelry, the food, cases of beer..." Shinji would have continued but Misato 'accidentally' stepped hard on the brake and his head was bounced off the front consol.  
  
"Oops, sorry about that. You just sleep until we get to base." She whispered as she ran her hand through his hair. 'And I can get a good excuse ready.'  
  
So Misato Katsuragi, anonymous leader of the Bishonen fanclub, lead Shinji into the deepest bowels of Nerv, then back to where she needed to be. 'Pictures are such lovely things.' She thought to herself as Shinji stirred and woke.  
  
Groggy and confused, Shinji looked to Misato, "What happened where are we?" He didn't notice yet that his shirt was buttoned wrong and his pants on backwards.  
  
Gesturing out the window, Misato announced their arrival at the Geo-front, last bastion of human defiance against the Angels, and a very convenient tax shelter. "Don't mid all the wires and such, were still finish some parts of it."  
  
Amazed by the sheer majesty of the fortress, Shinji couldn't help but ask, "What keeps this elevator from crashing to the ground?" His answer was Misato's face going completely white and her eyes widening into saucers. 'Ok, don't ask anymore questions.'  
  
Trying to get the sudden fear of falling to her death, Misato reasoned some questions of her own would be a good thing. "So Shinji, tell me what you know about why your father called you here?" Knowing partially the answer, Misato simply wanted an excuse to hand the boy a lot of reading material.  
  
Thinking about what he had read, and what his teacher told him, Shinji formed his answer. "I've always been told that father does nothing but waste tax payers money in an insane attempt to make all future generations hate the ground he lived on. That he should be castrated by rusty knives and have his eyes gorged out."  
  
Smiling and nodding at him, "We're going to be good friends you know that?" Misato loved how that boy thought. Even if they weren't really his thoughts. Tossing a few more pamphlets to him, the pair found themselves at the base of the elevator and took to walking the remainder of the way.  
  
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"Misato, you know four rights make a square right?" Shinji asked as his leader just made her eighth right turn. His confidence in her abilities growing smaller and smaller as the pain in his feet grew.  
  
Waving her hand in admonishment, Misato chastised him, "Silly, I'm just giving you time to read up on all those books I gave you." Her mind however was praying Ritsuko didn't come to help her, 'Ritsuko always makes me a guinea pig after receiving help from her.'  
  
Reading 'Surrender your life, soul, and money to Nerv' hadn't been the best read in Shinji's short life, but it did help pass the time. However he was growing anxious to see his father, taking a quick peak from behind his current book, 'How to live with only one leg and arm,' Shinji pointed to a seeming elevator. "Could that be what we're looking for?"  
  
Finally noticing the elevator after passing it so many times, Misato's face contorted into a grimace, "Don't you get smart with me young man if it were somebody..." said door opened and out walked a rather shapely blond woman, who for nor apparent reason was wearing a swimming suit, "...would walk out of it."  
  
"Captain, would you care to explain why you're still walking around down here?" Ritsuko's eyes wandered over to Shinji, "Taking more pictures?"  
  
"Actually I was talking to Shinji about how he loves to help people, right Shinji?" Her voice dark and threatening, Shinji found himself nodding for no reason.  
  
Giving the boy another once over, as one would survey a piece of meat or appliance, Ritsuko's face widened into a smile. "Is that so. Good after we finish today I'll have to let you assist me in a few of my experiments. Now lets get to the bridge time is a factor and if you hadn't wasted the day we wouldn't be in this situation."  
  
"Its not my fault every teenage boy I ran into pleaded to have me take them with me claiming to be Shinji," placing a hand to her chest in a mock of exasperation, knowing full well it was her chest that got said attention in the first place.  
  
Ritsuko wasn't buying it, "Follow me."  
  
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'Wow, that Ritsuko woman is very pretty,' Shinji couldn't help but notice as he followed to two arguing women. He had tried to pay attention to them but all the accusations he just tuned them out. He was starting to wonder if Nerv wasn't a government agency and really a modeling agency.  
  
Following the two into another room, another concept was called to his attention. 'Why the hell is it so dark in here?' Bumping into one of his superiors, and trying to ignore the rather pleasure filled sigh that escaped whoever it was he asked said question.  
  
The blond, Ritsuko if he remembered right, answered him, "Nerv has a lot of lights, and we can't go wasting electricity can we. And it makes this a very dramatic scene."  
  
"Make what more dramatic?" his body starting to tremble with an unknown fear. Today wasn't really a day for any more surprises in his opinion. Life and luck were for today having a fun time proving the boy wrong, and as the lights turned on in a stylish show of melodrama Shinji was presented with a very peculiar showing. "It's the woman's restroom?"  
  
"MISATO! DON'T YOU KNOW WHERE THE BRIDGE IS?" Ritsuko shouted as Misato pardoned herself and went into a stall.  
  
After a few moments and a flush, she rejoined them, "Sorry but I couldn't hold it anymore, let's go."  
  
Led into yet another darkened room, Shinji fully expected to find a giant pit that they two, supposedly intelligent woman were to dump him. He was welcomed by something far worse. "A giant purple head. Dad made that didn't he?" Shinji's few memories of his fathers rather perverted sense of human running into his head.  
  
Having first actually realized that the boy had a point, Misato and Ritsuko both blushed a moment before the faux blond spoke. "This is Evangelion Unit 01 one of the few things capable of destroying the Angels."  
  
Looking between the woman and the robot, Shinji's voice meekly protested, "That's all well and good, so why isn't it stopping the one attacking?"  
  
A voice boomed over the loud speakers and in flourish of tasteless self- promotion, Gendo's viewing chambers lit up, "We were waiting for you, its pilot to arrive!"  
  
'That's why he wanted me here! To pilot some giant robot?' The thoughts didn't compute in the boy's head, the desire for love was to great, his father couldn't be asking him that. "You mean to tell me nobody else can pilot it? That of all humanity you need me to risk MY life for this?"  
  
Smirking at the boy before him that seemed to be so small in his eyes, "I just wanted to make you suffer. WHY COULDN'T YOU HAVE BEEN A GIRL, I DIDN'T WANT A SON?"  
  
About now those watching the father/son conversation started to doubt Gendo's sanity. They knew that they truly didn't have many options in pilots so why was this bastard trying so hard to piss their only hope off?  
  
Having taken sex-ed, Shinji knew the answer to that question, "It's your fault father! The male is the one who is responsible for the sex of the child!"  
  
Gendo's eyes shifted behind his glasses, he had forgotten that. Glad that nobody could see his agitation, "Irrelevant, you will pilot!"  
  
"No! I didn't come here for this! I can't do it!" Shinji noticed several techies taking out chairs and enjoying the rather emotional display he and his father where making.  
  
From behind him, Misato put her hand on his shoulder, "Why did you come here then Shinji-kun?"  
  
Up in his room, Gendo wasn't going to make this easy on his boy, nothing could be. 'If that lil bastard thinks he can just walk in and walk out he has another thing coming.' Turning to his wall of secret camera's, most of which were linked to the female showers, his old teacher appeared on the screen, "Fuyutsuki, wake Rei. The spare needs motivation."  
  
The elderly man could only gape, "But sir, we just got her under control. We needed to use Nadesico* to put her back down."  
  
"Perfect, she'll follow orders then. Just have her strapped down and for Kami-sama's sake keep her away from the stimulus," Gendo ordered before turning back to his son. His son who was watching his crew alters the Evangelion to accept Rei. 'Why did the last Rei have to take everything so literally?'  
  
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"Rei do you know your purpose?" a younger Gendo asks his ward an eleven- year-old Ayanami Rei.  
  
Her voice lacking anything remotely similar to emotion, "I am to follow your every order to the letter."  
  
Masking his face behind his gloved hands, as he so loved doing, he smirked. "Yes Rei, you are to follow every command exactly. There is to be no divergence from them."  
  
Rei nodded, to the man that had given her life, she was forced to believe she should do no less. Opening her mouth to ask for permission to leave, Gendo's phone rang.  
  
Breaking from his pose, Gendo held a finger out, "Don't do anything Rei, I have to answer this."  
  
Rei listened to that order and shut her eyes.  
  
After a lengthy conversation with Keel, in Gendo's mind a very foolish Cyclops wannabe, he slammed the receiver down and looked to Rei, or rather to where she had been standing.  
  
Rushing over to her body, Gendo found the poor child dead. "Dammit Rei I didn't mean to stop breathing!" Shaking his head, he wondered how long it would take for Ritsuko to get another clone ready. 'Guess we'll have to try something else with the next one.'  
  
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Shaking off the bad memory, Gendo watched as the stretcher was wheeled on deck with a fully restrained Rei upon it. Having a fully obedient Ayanami hadn't worked so, after following the council's advice, this one wasn't devoid of anything, and she was just overly impressionable.  
  
Shinji watched the men pushing the poor girl past him, and he couldn't stop the feeling of guilt rise in him. 'She's so hurt they have her restrained!' Rage boiled in him, "Father! You can't expect to make her pilot!"  
  
Ritsuko, knowing Rei was restrained in the case she had gotten into the more 'active' stimuli again, wrinkled her nose at the old man in his room. 'He's going to trick his son.'  
  
"I will unless you pilot. Pilot and she is freed, leave and she'll do it!" Gendo had to use all his will not to laugh as his son's head sunk. He would have laughed if the Angel's last attack hadn't shaken the whole station.  
  
Hearing the young girls yelp of surprise, Shinji was off to her aid before he could think. The girl's forward momentum breaking her free of her constraints, Shinji caught her before she could hit the ground. Looking at her for the first time he remembered, 'It's the girl I saw on the street!'  
  
Said girl's ruby eyes fluttered open and took in the vision of her savior. 'He looks like Akito...*' Her heart going into flutter mode, she tried to move into a better position in his lap.  
  
Believing her in pain, Shinji clutched her closer to himself. Taking in the full illusion of frailty and beauty his heart was set. "I'll pilot it!" Trying to lay the girl as gently on the ground as possible, he found it hard to let go of her, and that was because her hands seemed to be stronger than his and they didn't WANT to let go.  
  
With his agreement the crew quickly set to getting him ready for the first of hopefully many launches, if he failed however this was to be a one time event. Ritsuko however wasn't finished yet. Blind hatred for Gendo's obsession over that 1st child gave her an idea. "Put Rei in with him."  
  
Looking from where she had stationed herself, the coffee pot, Misato questioned the good mad scientists statement, "Why should we do that? Won't that mess everything up?"  
  
Walking over to her worried drinking buddy, "We know she can sync with her Eva, we don't know about him. She's totally under control so why not?" Leaning in closer she whispered a few more lines, "And if she gets attached to him we won't have to worry about her reading material anymore!"  
  
Not really liking a spastic Rei, Misato was almost obliged to agree. She knew that Rei's mentality was mostly set by what manga she had just read. Now she didn't know WHY she was like that, secretly she thought the girl a bit odd for it, she just knew that after reading 'Slayers' she tried burning down anybody that so much as spoke to her funny.  
  
"Shinji you protect Rei out there, She'll be your back up!" Misato ordered, but regretted the decision.  
  
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Holding unto the pale and oozing depression girl in his hands, Shinji wondered what exactly he had just gotten himself into. What he knew he was in was a giant tampon that was being shoved into the neck of the robot. "Rei, if you can hear me, I'll protect you."  
  
'I just hope I can protect myself' was the last thought he had before he found the elevator had stopped and he was now face to face with the monstrosity.  
  
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Author Notes.  
  
As you can see don't expect a lot of 'normal' things to happen in this. Its made purely as a way for me to keep my writing up to par, keep my humor in check, and for me not to ruin my other stuff.  
  
I will keep writing this but its purely a "I'm not ready for my other works" fic so don't judge to harshly ^_^  
  
Reviews are always welcome and yes Asuka will be in here and there is NO SET PAIRINGS AS OF THIS TIME! So Rei/Shinji fans don't relax. Asuka/Shinji fans don't flame, Shinji/Other hell I haven't even introduced the majority of them yet so hope exists  
  
Ja mata  
  
Zentrodie 


	2. This is your new job

Standard Disclaimer!  
  
Well things have taken a rather odd turn and I'm still in a rather shaky position. Again not wanting to ruin my other 'better' fics, I'm going to write another chapter of this one in the hopes of regaining some of my confidence.  
  
I own nothing, I am nothing, I am zen...I mean that in a metaphysical sense not in the shorting of my handle ^_^  
  
Read and enjoy  
  
--------------------------------------------------------------------------- What we Make of It Chapter 2 Your New Job  
Or  
How to handle a girl with multiple personalities  
  
Sitting in a tampon filled with looked to be urine wasn't exactly how Shinji pictured his visit to Tokyo-3 would turn out. Staring at a giant monster that seemed to have a big grudge against everything for no reason what so ever wasn't something he expected to have to face until he got a job. But he did have a beautiful girl that was wearing a skintight body suit pressed against his side, and that was something he never expected to happen in this lifetime. Said girl had yet to talk, move, or show any sign of emotion however so that kinda killed the mood.  
  
Looking at the rather extensive assortment of levers, dials, and read outs around him, Shinji realized something else; he had no clue what to do. "So what do I do know?"  
  
From her position in the command center, Ritsuko addressed the young man, "Put your hands in the stirrups and concentrate on walking." Looking for supporting advice from her fellow tech's Ritsuko found them all at their battle stations. Removing her finger from the intercom switch, "Hey guys save some popcorn for me!"  
  
The bridge crew tuned out Akagi and faced the monitors to watch Shinji walk. They watched from their stations, that being a large set of couches and each had beverage and snack in hand. 'Not like we can really do anything at this point anyway' most would respond if asked, but nobody cared.  
  
Back in the tamp...entry plug, Shinji tried his best to ignore the girl that was now for no reason gripping his arm and focus on willing his mecha to walk. After a few shaky steps, and one crushed phone booth, a stark realization came over him. "This is pretty easy."  
  
Unknown to humanity, the current Angelic visitor had the age equivalent to a five year old. Watching the show from afar, Sachiel was growing bored of stomping cars like ants and wandered over to play. Taking his new playmates arm in his hand, he chose to dance and since the giant purple thing gave off a feminine aura she would make a good partner.  
  
Being the only active person at the moment, Ritsuko chose that moment to ask why Shinji was letting the Eva be manhandled. "Shinji! Why don't you fight back! Deploy your AT Field quick!"  
  
Pain was a funny thing. Sometimes it helps one to focus, while other times it causes one to pass out. The pain of having something attempt to rip your arm out of its socket while doing a pirouette had a unique response on Shinji he grew very angry. Screaming as loud as he could, "What the hell is an AT Field?"  
  
Rei for her part looked at Shinji, the angel, back to Shinji, and tried to think of something to say, 'He is doing this for me, I should say something to either encourage or help him.' Failing that she just hugged his arm. Back at the bridge, Ritsuko had to be restrained from impaling Misato with her pen for not telling Shinji anything that would have been deemed important.  
  
Waiting for some response, Shinji noticed his view had grown dark. 'What's that red thing?' he thought briefly before it turned bright white and a short of pain laced his eye. Sachiel had grown tired of dancing and chose a new game that being lets see what your brain looks like.  
  
Following a few short blasts to the forehead, Shinji and Rei both chose to let nature take its coarse, nature being a mother's over protective nature of her child. Nature, now referred to as Yui Ikari, found it appropriate to take away the angels arms, 'He wasn't playing nice anyway.'  
  
Tearing off the offending limbs and a few of its extended ribs, Yui tried to place them delicately into the core, after a few unsuccessful tries, she added more force, then a lot more. With hurt feelings, and a many broken appendages, Sachiel deemed it time to leave and quickly enveloped Unit-01 and self-destructed.  
  
Never knowing the truth that the angel really wanted to play, the command staff of Nerv rejoiced in the slaying of the adolescent Angel. From their point of view the battle had been terrifying yet beautiful. Full of colors, descriptions, and actions that won't be described here.  
  
Over all the loud yelling and cheers Maya the youngest and most likely hired because of Ritsuko's fetishes, crewmember ventured a question. "What about the pilots?"  
  
Misato put down her forth post battle beer, "Buzz killer."  
  
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Bolting upright from his bed, Shinji was slightly saddened by not seeing pearly gates. "Guess I didn't die after all." Finding no reason to stay in bed, he removed himself from the sheets and after a moment of wondering why he was clad only in his undergarments, put his cloths back on.  
  
Walking out of his room, Shinji noticed the name on the door across from his own. 'Ayanami Rei, that was the name of the girl that was in that robot with me. Wonder how she is doing.' Knocking on the door and receiving no response, Shinji tentatively opened and walked in the door.  
  
Finding the girl lying in a room similar to his own, he was a little depressed. Where was this girl's family? Why was she still allowed to wear her cloths? 'Why am I depressed about that?' Again the roid raging sense of self-hatred berated him for his slightly impure thought. Unable to help himself he approached the girl's bed and ran a hand through her slightly damp hair. 'She really is cute.'  
  
Having her privacy violated, Rei opened her eyes, and after a few confused moments, Shinji found his body pressed against the wall but an unseen force. "Why are you here?" Rei asked her voice still lacking anything humans call life.  
  
Suspended upside down against the wall, the 'you' in Rei's statement tried to speak. The blood rushing to his head, Shinji hoped to be let down quickly. "I wanted to see if you were alright."  
  
With a nod, Rei let Shinji down. Dropping her field, Shinji collapsed on the ground headfirst and rolled to his feat. Tilting her head slightly as her eyes adjusted to the light and she recognized her visitor. "How does my health relate to my hair?"  
  
Blushing softly and dropping his head, "It doesn't, sorry about that. Are you hurt though? Can I do anything to help?" Shinji's mind asked him if he were truly able to do anything that could actually be of use to anybody.  
  
Thinking for a few moments, Rei did find something for the young man to do that could assist her. "Reading material."  
  
'Ah, she must have to stay longer than I do.' Reaching into his back pocket he found his copy of Pita Ten had survived the previous encounters. Offering the wilted printed pages to the girl, "Do you mind Shoujo manga?"  
  
Having never spent time with Rei, Shinji had no idea what he was doing. He missed the sudden gleam in the girl's eyes as her fingers clenched around the book. "This will do." Without further words, Rei opened the manga and started reading, totally ignoring Shinji.  
  
Being used to having his belongings taken from him and not getting any word of thanks, Shinji walked out of Rei's room and headed off to find somebody that could tell him what to do now. 'If she likes manga so much, maybe I can get her some more.'  
  
----------  
  
Looking at his son, Gendo has trying his hardest not to scream. All his life all he wanted was a daughter. A nice little girl that he could train and mold into an efficient killer! Using sexual wiles and wits to destroy the minds of men. 'But no! I have to have a whiny scrawny son! Look at how Katsuragi glares at my 'son' with all the hate in her.' Handing a few sheets of paper to the boy he said a few words then left. "Get out of my sight and don't talk to me unless I ask for you to."  
  
Looking at Shinji with what the commander thought was hate, and was in reality something on the opposite spectrum of emotion, Misato wondered what he was given. Not really caring for younger males rights to privacy, "What did he give you?"  
  
Flipping through the pages and reading what they had to offer, "My living arrangements. Seems I'm to live in section D area 12. Do you know where that is?"  
  
All Nerv knew of that location, they had their trash dumped there. "Shinji- kun that's the city dump."  
  
That's when the depression officially kicked in. 'Father doesn't even care that I'm here! Do I ask to much from people, is that what it is?' Flipping over the pages again and finding more evidence of his father's hatred, Shinji just slumped his shoulders and headed back to the exit.  
  
Watching him go, well part of him go, Misato followed his movements, 'If those pictures sell as good as I think they will...,' A smile spread across her features, hustling over to him she pulled him to a stop, "Shinji, are you ok with that?"  
  
Gently removing Misato's hand from his shoulder, and taking a step out of her reach, "Yeah, I've been cooking and cleaning for years so it won't be to much of a hassle."  
  
Misato's mind came to a grinding halt. 'He cooks, cleans, and can make me a mint on Bishonen websites!' Taking the boy's hands in hers, Misato informed him of the blessing he was about to receive. She was taking him under her wing as her ward. 'I must have done something really good to receive this! Can't remember for the life of me but hey maybe Kami-sama makes mistakes too.'  
  
------------  
  
As Misato finished sealing the fate of her finances and Shinji's soon to be published 'body' of work on the Internet, Ritsuko phoned her. Judging by the screams, Misato guessed her drinking buddy was far from calm. "Just tell me what's going on?"  
  
From what Shinji could hear from the shouting over the phone, "Rei's gotten out, and to make matters worse we found active stimuli in her room!"  
  
Taking a quick glance at Shinji, Misato retorted, "I thought we didn't have to worry. She'll have a venue to displace her actions now." She just hoped the venue didn't die during Rei's sometime over excessive bouts of personality.  
  
"That's just it," Ritsuko said exasperated, "From what it looks like the stimuli is a code 'R' so it could really make matters worse."  
  
"I'll keep an eye on him Rits, things will be ok," hanging up the phone, Misato was not surprised to see a stunned young Ikari. "What's on your mind?" Her mind however was wondering who was dumb enough to give Rei a romance manga.  
  
Shuffling his feat as his embarrassment increased under Misato's gaze, "Is something wrong with Ayanami-san, she seemed fine earlier?" His few encounters with the sullen girl gave him the impression that the sad girl had many health problems.  
  
"You saw Rei earlier today?" the purple haired woman's voice laced with a bit of jealousy. Struck by the pain that always accompanies thoughts, Misato came to a possibility. "Shinji, did you give anything to Rei when you met with her?"  
  
A low rumbling started to fill Shinji's ears, dismissing the sound, "She asked for something to read so I lent her one of my manga." Moving faster than Shinji thought possible, Misato had the boy pressed against the wall and was glairing in his eyes. "Did I do something wrong?"  
  
'Wait nobody told him...shit.' Trying to calm herself, "Shinji-kun, Rei is very, how should I put this, impressionable. She had an accident a few years ago and since then, well we don't let her read manga, see movies, television, go to school, or do anything that doesn't have to do with Nerv."  
  
'And I thought my life was bad,' the boy thought. Cringing further against the wall, he also wondered why Misato had yet to take her hands off his shoulders. "Why do that?"  
  
Now Misato was starting to hear the rumbling and grew more worried. "She identifies with one of the characters and takes on their personality." Her head swiveling from side to side as the rumbling became more distinct and identifiable. They were the sounds of somebody running down the corridor. Moving her hands from Shinji's shoulders to the wall, Misato propelled herself away from the boy just in time.  
  
From his point of view, Shinji was aware of only a few things. One was the increasing sound resembling footfalls, second Misato had shoved herself away from him, and third a human torpedo was launched at him.  
  
Having read Shinji's manga, Rei was instinctively drawn to the angel in the story. Said angel being Misha, an over active girl that was highly attached to her quasi-boyfriend. As Rei hadn't really been around people her own age finding her 'significant other' was easy. Yelling, "SHINJI-KUN!" Rei dove head first into the young man's stomach and wrapped her arms around him as they collapsed on the ground.  
  
Finding the air in his lungs forcibly removed by the human bullet, Shinji was quite happy on the ground. Shifting his eyes to the source of his sudden case of asphyxiation, he noticed Rei sitting on his chest with her eyes sparkling and a wide smile. Misato was cringing against the wall, whenever Rei wasn't creepy or depressed Misato found it hard to accept.  
  
"Hi-su!* How are you Shinji-kun?" Rei's voice chipper and light. Bouncing lightly in anticipation for the boy to speak, she had no idea she was forcing even more air out of his lungs.  
  
Amazed by the sudden change in Rei's action, voice, and well just about everything except appearance Shinji turned to Misato for clarification. The adult simply nodded to the unspoken question about what she had meant earlier. 'So Rei's acting like Misha?"  
  
Moving to a kneeling position on Shinji's right, Rei dazzled him with a smile, "Te-he want to date-su?"  
  
'Ok, I've had enough, this is creeping me out!' Shinji's overloaded brain concluded as he got to his feet and scrambled off in unknown directions. Pouting cutely only like a mentally unstable Rei fixated on caring for Shinji could, She got to her feet.  
  
"Captain, why did he run?" her voice losing some of the energy that it just so previously held.  
  
'Maybe its not just the manga that's gotten into her mind...could she actual want to talk to him?' Misato ventured before her more hentai side took over, "Why not hunt him down, he could be playing hard to get."  
  
"Understood, with your leave Captain," Rei headed off down the hall towards whatever destination Shinji had chosen. Her mind focused on catching her prey, Rei wasn't about to fail. Opting for the full Misha look, Rei also used her more angelic abilities and sprouted a pair of wings from her back and flew after him.  
  
-------------  
  
Making another random choice in corridors, Shinji tried to recap all that just happened in his life, 'Robots, breathing liquid, father, and now a girl that goes from empty to gushing love what the hell is up with this place?'  
  
One thing he failed to notice was how the hallway was becoming more dirty and abandoned. He had entered Akagi territory. Nobody ventured into her laboratories willingly, so the janitorial staff was wise not to clean there. As the hormones began to subside a new feeling screamed for attention, 'I have to pee.'  
  
Finally taking the view his environment provided didn't instill great hope for finding the correct location of the privy. Yelling out in utter confusion, "Why are there so many damn doors!"  
  
Owing up to fate, Shinji began the tedious task of scouting for the elusive bathroom. The first few rooms were filled with animals, well cared for animals but animal's none-the-less. Some rooms Shinji didn't want to know what they were used for 'looks like a medieval fair or something.'  
  
Finding a door that had a keypad on it, he was tempted not to try it trying to think of the reason to lock the bathroom. Then he remembered his father seemed to be a massive asshole so locking the bathroom would be up his alley. Pulling on he handle it proved not to have been fully closed or locked as it opened with a heavy tug.  
  
Walking into the darkened room, a sense of foreboding swelled in the boy. 'This can't be the bathroom.' As he turned to move a mild electrical pulse caused the overhead light to flicker revealing a human form against a wall. 'Who...who could be in this place?'  
  
Moving over to the fallen body, Shinji shook the apparently female body. He guessed it was female as its hair seemed shoulder length and well it had a distinct bust. "Miss...miss are you..." a sound behind him caught his attention.  
  
Rei had finally caught up with her prey, "SHINJI-KUN!!!!" Opting for another full body torpedo hug, Rei rammed into Shinji's back forcing him against the other girl. Not really trying to kiss the prone figure, he wasn't surprised that once he actually did something happened. Her eyes opened and they were glowing. "Why did you run from my Shinji-kun, you're my hero!"  
  
'Hero? Before you hardly spoke a word and now I'm a hero, just what the hell is going on in Ayanami's mind, and why is this other girls eyes glowing?' Shinji tried to move away from the glowing eyes and to get Rei off of him, that's about the time the lights were turned on.  
  
"See Ritsuko I told you we'd find them in a dark place all over each other," Misato laughed as Ritsuko stormed into room over to Shinji.  
  
"WHAT DID YOU DO? YOU WOKE HER UP!" The blonds voice full of awe and surprise.  
  
Finally able to see the girl's body that he presently had his body pressed against, Shinji didn't notice Misato prying Rei off his back. He was face to face with what seemed to be an older Rei with longer hair but instead of clothing she had some odd metal bodice and on her head was a plate that read 'Kos-Mos.'  
  
Looking at the boy that kissed her, her voice again caused Shinji to imagine an older form or Rei, "So you are my Master?"  
  
"Oh hell what now," Shinji said as all around him gasped.  
  
------------------------  
  
Author notes  
  
Ok Rei is OOC...no doubt about it, but as this is a comedy story with no real rules I thought it be funny to make Rei impressionable and not lacking. So prepair for a lot of changes in Rei's attitude, sure she'll be depressed on somber a lot but, hopefully based off some suggestions from my readers hint hint, she'll have behave like other characters.  
  
Today's character was Misha from Pita-ten, really good anime/manga  
  
Oh as for Kos-Mos she is an android that looks exactly like Rei but older and with longer hair...wonder how they got the idea for her. As for the kissing/master thing its happens in so many OTHER SHOWS why not do it here? My answer no reason ^_^  
  
Could say is a shout out to Steel Angel Kurumi or Saber Marrionette J  
  
Hope you liked it.  
  
Ja Mata  
  
Zentrodie  
  
Now for Omake! As this story is basically a giant Omake itself I've chosen to take things a little differently So without further ado...  
  
THE LOVE BATTLE LINES!! Yes the battle lines are being drawn even before all the characters have assembled.  
  
Otaku-Dman – Rei Chewy – Mana Kusinagi_Blue- Asuka  
  
Pick your side and be added to the growing list!  
  
As for manga a code 'R' = romance comic Said comic today was Pita Ten, if you haven't read/saw it I suggest it. It's a cutesy show with no real violence and best of all LITTLE FAN SERVICE!!!!  
  
Well keep on trucking, keep hope alive, um...keep your shoes tied, keep reading, damn um...bye 


	3. This is Your new life

Standard Disclaimer  
  
Time time time, I wish I had more of it ^_^ Again I wanna stress the total lack of effort and thought I'm putting into this lil story. Hope you enjoy it and continue to read it though.  
  
On a brighter note, my semester ends in about two weeks and I get to move into a studio apartment!!! Finally no more flat mates to yell at me for 'not doing what I was told'  
  
On that note I bring you  
  
-------------------------------------------------------------  
  
What We Make of It  
  
Chapter 3  
  
A New Life  
  
-- Or  
What not to do on your first day of school  
  
Lying in a tub of hot water was the best way Shinji could think of relieving some of his newfound stress. After waking Kos-Mos from her slumber and learning that she now considered him her master, Shinji had finally gotten himself something that had worth to it. According to Ritsuko, his new android slave cost Nerv about two billion yen to produce.  
  
The last two weeks had been very odd. Kos-Mos and he moved in with Misato. Rei was still under observation by Ritsuko.  
  
'What the hell am I supposed to do with an android?' the boy thought as he splashed a little water on his face to keep from getting to relaxed in the tub. He honestly didn't know what to do with Kos-Mos. The girl seemed to have the entire history of the world programmed into her and still had no sense of tact or human sensibility.  
  
From the door Shinji heard another problem in his life, Misato. "Shinji you're not doing anything indecent in there are you?" Judging from the way she was slurring her words, Shinji took a gambit that she was well on her way into a drinking binge. That thought alone reminded him of how much work living with her was going to be.  
  
'I need to get some actual food for this place, I can't live on beer and pocki.' Climbing out of the tub taking the towel that was offered to him, Shinji's mind came to a screeching halt. 'Somebody just handed me a towel...but' Looking at where he had attained said towel. "KOS-MOS WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN HERE?"  
  
Sporting a light blush, making Shinji wonder how human she was, Kos-Mos simple stated, "It's my duty as your servant to assist you in all aspects of living."  
  
Putting that little tidbit of information into the back of his mind, Shinji proceeded to push the half human half artificial being out of the bathroom and into the living room. "I told you at Nerv, you're not my servant. You're your own person!"  
  
Trying her best to match what the humans called joy, Kos-Mos's words were a sad mockery of happiness. Sounding faker than a three-dollar bill Kos-Mos glomped onto Shinji smiling, "I choose to be your servant regardless."  
  
The cool metal arms plus the warmth from her human chest again frazzled the poor boy's mind. Trying to grasp what was happening, Shinji's grip on his towel loosened and his towel slipped to the ground.  
  
Drawn by the rather odd comments from her living room, Misato was given her second full viewing of Shinji, while he was conscious that is. "Going to break her in early are you?" Misato's words dripping with jealousy as she gave the boy a once over.  
  
Now Misato wasn't foolish and after previously looking at certain appendages on him, realized something was grossly off with it. Having called Ritsuko earlier she was let in on a little family secret.  
  
-------------  
  
As Shinji eeped back into the bath after the Pen-Pen incident Misato took the liberty of calling her friend.  
  
After a few rings a rather upset Ritsuko returned Misato's call. "What is it Misato, I'm trying to sedate Rei."  
  
Remembering full well Rei's reaction to the news that she couldn't stay with Shinji, and the resulting damage to Kos-Mos's storage room, Misato didn't respond right off. "Rits I have a question...you know those pictures I sent you?"  
  
Having been on the receiving end of many of Misato's pictures, Ritsuko needed a little clarification. Having never really sent Ritsuko 'too naughty' of pictures she said the recent photos or questionable nature. 'Ah so she isn't as non-observant as I thought.'  
  
"Fourteen year olds shouldn't be that well endowed Ritsuko, I've seen grown men with less," the exasperated Captain said. She was having a hard enough time dealing with her developing crush on her younger ward, something she knew wouldn't be well received, now she had this problem.  
  
"You can blame his father for that little...or should I say larger problem," the blonds reply was a bit off itself having gradually started getting pissed at the Commander's 'love'm and leave'm' policy.  
  
Finishing her third beer, Misato let a stray though pass in her mind about the where abouts of her new robot. "Ritsuko, for a second remember that I'm not a expert at sleeping information out of people like you are and tell me straight out what the hell your talking about."  
  
'She going to be pissy with me is she! Lets she how she handles this,' the wicked scientist of Nerv laughed mentally as she opened Rei's cell and let the still High on Manga Rei out with a map to Misato's apartment. "Gendo always wanted a daughter you see."  
  
"From his crying about it I gathered that much," was the reply, well that and the crack of another can open. Casting a lasting glance at the bathroom door and wondering if it was locked, Misato waited for Ritsuko to continue.  
  
Now at her desk, Ritsuko opened a few computer files and went into full recount mode. "On the event of Shinji's birth he grew increasingly upset with the boy. Then he kinda paid the doctors to do something to him."  
  
Fear slowly started to ebb into Misato's voice, "He didn't try to kill him did he? The Commanders a sick bastard but not that bad, right?"  
  
"Define sick bastard. No he didn't try to kill him, he had the doctor inject Shinji with growth hormones. He said that if he was to have a son, that son would be a man among men." That said Ritsuko called up Misato's website, 'World Wide Bishonen' and finished by asking, "You know you have a few hundred new members on your page."  
  
'The commander is worse than I thought!' Misato tried to think as the glint in her eyes told a different story, "Yeah, I'm going to be making a killing!"  
  
-----------  
  
Back in the present, Shinji was trying his best to push Kos-Mos off, grab his towel, cover himself, and flee the room all at the same time. He wasn't doing a good job on any part of that. That was until Kos-Mos noticed Misato actively watching them, then she let Shinji go and pointed her arm at the offending woman.  
  
Not watching as Shinji scrambled to his room and slammed the door shut, Kos- Mos continued pointing her fingers at Misato. "State your purpose looking at my master in such a way."  
  
Looking at the robot, "Look here miss head plate, he's my ward so I have to make sure he doesn't get tetanus from some overly affectionate battery operated toy!" Misato shouted as she stormed closer to the affronting fingers. "So point your dainty little fingers someplace else!"  
  
Opting to show her now adversary what she was really pointing at her with, Kos-Mos let her hand transmute into a plasma cannon. "I will not allow you to endanger my master with whatever sick plans you have for him."  
  
The sudden urge to fight welled deep inside Misato. "So the toy has a weapon. I have one too." Misato's hand darted to her side and drew her side arm. "Lets dance."  
  
----------  
  
Tuning out the screams, shots, and curses Shinji sat at his new desk. 'I'm just causing Misato-san trouble by being here with Kos-Mos.' His sense of self-hatred getting a booster shot, he pulled out the phonebook known as Kos-Mos's users manual. "Maybe if I learn more about her, we won't cause so many problems."  
  
With the vigor of a clinically depressed child, Shinji tore into his studies. As hour two came to an end, and the sounds of battle slowly started to subside, Shinji came to one conclusion. "I don't understand a damn word of this book." Words like A.G.S, Gnosis, and Encephalon really didn't click in the boy's mind.  
  
The only thing that he was able to gather was that Kos-Mos's power supply was primarily the sun but in cases of extreme power usage he could wind her up with a key. Finding the key in a plastic baggy taped to the back of the book. Shinji, owed up to watching over Kos-Mos, and tied it to a bit of string and draped it around his neck. "Kids my age don't need this kind of responsibility." He said to himself referring to Kos-Mos, and totally forgetting the fact that he was currently the only human on earth able to protect mankind.  
  
Hearing a loud thud and watching the wall develop a large crack, Shinji chose to start reading again. 'Maybe I should try to stop them,' he thought mildly as a bullet passed over his head followed by Misato telling 'the bitch to hold still.' Fifteen minutes into his second bout of reading a flash of movement caught his attention.  
  
Asking his window a question, "Hello?" Shinji kinda felt dumber than usual as he expected the window to reply. As the window was not one to say much, Shinji went back to his transliteration of the manual. However after another few minutes another flash from the window drew his attention away from his job.  
  
"Now I know I saw something this time." Getting out of his new chair and walking a bit closer to the window, still finding nothing. Owing his seeing things to the new stress in his life, Shinji made a mental note to ask Misato about Nerv brand psychiatrists. Slapping his cheeks to hopefully keep any voices that may have wanted to start talking silent, the boy sat back down and started to fake read.  
  
Keeping an eye on the window secretly, Shinji waited. His patience was rewarded when a tuft of blue hair followed by a smiling face and red eyes found a home in the windowpane. "I KNEW IT!" Shinji joyously exclaimed as his paranoia was rewarded. 'Wait, this is the seventh floor of this complex...'  
  
Looking at the smiling Rei who was now trying to open the glass divider, Shinji nervously called out. "Misato?" after a few moments of hearing the sounds of battle, they subsided, so he called again, "Misato!"  
  
Shinji's rather frightened call breaking the two combatants concentration, Misato holstered her pistol. Her hair now completely frazzled and her cloths covered in sweat, she was feeling very much alive right now. "What is it Shinji-kun?" She ended her question by sticking her tongue out at the robot.  
  
His voice a trifle muddled by the walls, "Do we have an awning or a deck outside my window?"  
  
Having not thought of that, Misato took a mental note to install one, "No Shin-chan, why do you ask?" Leaving Kos-Mos behind in the devastated living room, Misato wanted to know what was causing such a rise in her young charge. 'Take that robot! He's asking for ME!'  
  
With his question answered, Shinji was now very scared. 'Rei is some how outside my window...but not standing on anything.' Rushing over to the window to let the poor girl in before something bad happened to her, Shinji was unfortunate with his timing.  
  
'I'll just replace the window afterwards,' was the thought in Rei's mind as she used her Misha wings to fly backwards far enough to gain momentum. With Shinji in her sights, Rei flew right at him. Crashing through the window and hitting her mark in the midsection, they pair again found themselves on the ground. "Hi su! I missed you-su!" Accentuating her words by hugging the prone boy.  
  
'I hope she isn't going to make a habit of cracking my ribs,' with a half smile the target tried to extricate himself from his new guest. "Hello Rei I...um...missed you too?" how he could miss her in the day they'd been separated he didn't know, he only knew it drew a smile from the girl.  
  
Walking into Shinji's room, Misato was the first surprised by the shattered glass all over the floor, then her eyes drifted down to the mass of humanity on the ground. "Shinji, I know you and Rei are now, um close friends," Misato had been tempted to use the term Nerv gave to Shinji that of sacrificial offering but resisted. "But you are not to have any of that type of activity in my house without asking permission first."  
  
Following closely behind Misato, when Kos-Mos came into view of her master underneath somebody else, she went into attack mode again. "Get off my master or face me!"  
  
Having taken a lot of abuse from Ritsuko after being parted from her Shinji, Rei was not one to listen, "No, I just got here." Her arms wrapped tighter around Shinji's waist and drew him into a seated position.  
  
Misato knew what to expect from Kos-Mos after spending the last few hours fighting her. 'I wonder how I'll explain Rei's corpse to Ritsuko,' she thought as Kos-Mos reformed her cannon and fired at the two children on the floor. Hoping Kos-Mos didn't accidentally hit Shinji, Misato was shocked when the blast was deflected off an AT-Field and destroyed the book on Shinji's desk.  
  
"Misato-san HELP ME!" the boy cried from within Rei's arms as his will to live overwhelmed his sense of pride. Knowing that she had to get rid of Rei or Kos-Mos would start to do some serious damage, Misato ran off to get the one thing she knew Rei couldn't resist.  
  
'I just feel bad for Shinji though,' Misato thought as she ran to her room, grabbed her box of old manga and ran back to find Rei rubbing her check against Shinji's much to the android's dismay. 'I don't have time to make sure none of my emergency material is in here,' she reasoned that the benefits outweighed the risk. How bad could one or two hentai manga do to her anyway, she may never even find them.  
  
The soul within Kos-Mos's metal chasse was enraged. 'I just wake up, I get a nice master, and now this half human half angel freak is going to try and take him from me!' Looking at her arm, she opted to alter her attack from long range to melee combat. Changing her cannon into a saber, Kos-Mos readied to charge. "I asked you once, now I will force you."  
  
Shinji just waited for the reaper. 'I'm starting to think I'm being punished for something I didn't do.' Closing his eyes as Kos-Mos charged the two of them, and Rei still seemed oblivious to anything. Waiting for the gates to appear before him, Shinji had one last thought, 'Maybe her fairly bland personality was better.'  
  
Everything stopped when Misato shouted her re-entry. "Rei would you like some more manga?" Tossing the fairly large box that contained her whole life's worth of manga collecting at the girl. 'Please let this work.'  
  
Her obsession for manga drew enough of Rei's attention for her to release Shinji, and adverting Kos-Mos's fury. Catching the box and looking at the few books on the top, Rei's face was bright. "Can I really have these?"  
  
Shinji and Misato exchanged glances, "Sure but you have to take them home now. Shinji needs to get ready for bed. He starts school tomorrow."  
  
With what Shinji had to admit was a very cute pouty face, Rei accepted Misato's ultimatum. Giving the young boy a light peck on the cheek, Rei hefted her box and flew out the window, leaving a very destroyed apartment behind her.  
  
Looking around the disheveled building, Misato sighed heavily. "Well my room needs to be renovated so I'm bunking with you tonight." Not waiting for Shinji to reply, Misato dropped down on Shinji's futon and patted the spot next to her.  
  
Shinji looked between Kos-Mos who was eyeing his closet like she was sizing up her own room, Misato who had a very odd look in her eye, and the pile of ashes that had been his one hope of finding out how to deal with Kos-Mos. 'Life is now going to get very odd.' The last few incidents catching up to the boy, Shinji just accepted things and climbed into the futon next to Misato.  
  
All that night he tried stay as far from the woman as possible, but for some odd reason she kept rolling closer to him. 'She must strap herself into bed at night.' That was when Misato started to talk in her sleep. Needless to say Shinji didn't get any sleep that night.  
  
-----------  
  
In an attempt to maintain some sense of stability in his life, Shinji pried himself out of the embrace Misato put him in during her rest. He was slightly tempted to think that maybe that Misato cared about him, but his low self-esteem reminded him of his status of being a worthless piece of trash and that anything she tossed his way in the shape of affection was all due to a sense of duty.  
  
Making a small breakfast from the available food and using what little cookery that wasn't in many tiny pieces, Shinji left a note on Misato's plate. The note asked rather politely for her to go grocery shopping for a few listed items, and to hopefully get the apartment repaired.  
  
He also left Kos-Mos a note, as she hadn't rebooted when he stole from the room, asking her not to follow him to school yet. 'I'm going to have a hard enough time trying to fit in without a semi-nude android with me.' He reasoned as he found his way into the schoolyard and to his appointed classroom.  
  
Finding his classroom mostly vacant, he found a desk and pulled out his transfer forms. As he surveyed the room, his eyes feel unto something he hadn't expected, Rei was already there and she wasn't rushing to attack him. It was then that he saw the manga in her hands, 'Ai Yori Aoshi.'  
  
"Wonder if she'll adapt to somebody in that one," he said aloud drawing said girl's attention.  
  
Bashfully looking about the room for anyone else that may be spying on them, Rei nervously approached Shinji's desk. "Shinji-sama may we speak?"  
  
Shinji could only stare at Rei. Her voice was so different than the last time she spoke to him. Gone was the exuberance and energy only to be replaced with elegance and grace and a hint of naïveté. "Um, sure Rei what is it?"  
  
Covering her mouth with her balled fist, Rei again glanced to insure their secrecy. "Even though we can't make our relationship public knowledge know that I care for you." Blushing fiercely Rei rushed off to her desk and her waiting manga.  
  
'She's taken after Aoi,' Shinji thought as he shook his head. He felt bad for Rei, 'She can't possibly actually care for me, and it's just her personality complex.' Planting his face on his desk Shinji cried out to Kami-sama for an answer to why nobody cared about him.  
  
In Heaven Kami-sama laughed his ass off, "Boy really needs some self- esteem. Well guess I'll just have to give a little more love his way. Maybe he'll understand."  
  
Back on earth, more upset and unruly children found their seats in the hell known as public school. Several students looked at Shinji oddly, which did much to improve Shinji's sense of self-loathing picturing all of the students judging him already. Truth was he was being judged by several of the female students that actively viewed certain Internet sites.  
  
Minato looked at her friends and in a hushed voice, "It couldn't really be him could it?"  
  
Turning from her computer to face her blond haired friend, Ami blushed softly, "He could be, we could ask couldn't we?"  
  
"That's why you're the brains of this outfit Ami-chan!" Minato clasped her hands on the blue haired girls back as they went to check said site just for reference.  
  
His ears burning for no particular reason, Shinji just added it to the usual number of bad things that happened to him daily. Thinking of trying to gain a small bit of sleep on his desk, the tired male went to put his head down on his desk but was stopped by the appearance of a student by his desk.  
  
"Are you Ikari Shinji?" a pigtailed girl asked in a friendly voice.  
  
Spotting a few freckles, Shinji deemed the girl above cute and then felt his self-abuse circuit kick in with an added dose of guilt. "Yes miss..."  
  
Taking his trailing statement as a prompt to introduce herself, "Hokari Hikari, I'm the class representative." Judging him like a piece of meat, 'He's cute, but seems so sad.' Now Hikari wasn't like most girls, she didn't just go up to any guy and hit on him, but she was feeling very upset with her current love target at the moment. 'Touji's been acting to stupid lately maybe I should give up on him.'  
  
Handing his printouts to the representative, Shinji thanked her for taking them for him. Trying to keep his eyes from dropping to far from her face, Shinji wondered why she hadn't left yet. "Can I do anything else for you?"  
  
'You can help me get Touji jealous enough to finally ask me out.' Flashing Shinji a brilliant smile. "I was wondering if you'd like a tour of the school after classes get out. I'd be more than glad to help you get acquainted with things here."  
  
'She's just trying to be nice to me, don't look to deeply into things.' With a nod he told the nice girl that he'd be honored to be shown the school. He did have to admit this school might not be that bad after all. Letting the class atmosphere sink in, Shinji failed to miss the bespectacled boy hammering away on his pc.  
  
------------  
  
School turned out to be just as boring as Shinji thought it would be. Listening to the droning teacher, all the students prayed to Kami to have the man either die or get fired. Shinji was rocked from his humble note taking when his computer prompted him with a message.  
  
[Is it really you?] From anonymous  
  
Not being psychic, Shinji had no idea what the message was trying to ask him. Letting his mind wonder over every possibility he came to his conclusion, 'they must be talking about piloting.' He reasoned it best to tell them the truth, as they'd find out eventually anyway.  
  
[Yes, I guess I am.]  
  
He hard a few exited gasps behind him and let out a breath he didn't know he was holding. Having expected a larger reaction, he was pleased at only two gasps and a lot of whispering. But he received another message.  
  
[Is it really as big as the pictures show?] From anonymous  
  
'I didn't know they had pictures of the Evangelion in the paper already,' Shinji thought as he typed his reply.  
  
[Yes]  
  
Now those three letters had the whole female populous in an uproar rushing towards Shinji's desk. They just HAD to meet boy that just won the 'Bishonen of the Year award.'  
  
Surrounded by a squealing, yelling, and touchy mob Shinji mouthed out quickly, "What I'm the a pilot." The word pilot drew the attention of the male populous and well then class was canceled due to excessive questions geared to the young Ikari boy. Rei's reaction was to turn her head down and walked home hoping to have a chance to talk to 'Shinji-sama' later.  
  
---------  
  
After the mob receded and Shinji was left with a mound of letters and phone numbers, Hikari approached the boy. "So you're the pilot of that robot?" She chose to question the less questionable rumor about the new boy and leave the one about the 'photos' for another day.  
  
Still suffering from his semi-violation at the hands of he fellow students he sat heavily in his desk. "Yes Hokari-san I am. Sorry for not telling you before."  
  
Helping him to his feet and smoothing out his ruffled cloths. "Still up for that tour?" Her voice holding a bit of hope in it.  
  
Not feeling really comfortable walking alone right now and not seeing Rei anywhere, Shinji offered the girl a small smile. "Sure, I'd really like that."  
  
'Whow his smiling should be outlawed! He's too damn cute when he does.' Shaking her growing capillary explosion off, Hikari lead the boy around the school. She showed him the cafeteria, gym, and then led him to the club section of campus. "You ever join clubs before?"  
  
Having mostly worked slave labor during his last time at school, he had to admit that he hadn't. Hikari laughed lightly at him and pointed out a few of the rooms. "Um Hokari-san."  
  
"Just call me Hikari!" she was getting a little upset that he still failed to take the hint at not being so formal.  
  
"Hikari-san why is so much yelling coming out of that room?" Shinji said as he pointed to a door what every so often a flash of light would appear under the crack.  
  
Taking Shinji's hand, Hikari ran far away from that door. "Shinji, that's the pokemon trainers club, DON'T go in that room or they'll get you addicted to them."  
  
Reading the newspaper report on the tragedy that befell another school that admitted pokemon trainers, Shinji made a mental note never to go back to that room again.  
  
They duo made their way to each clubs room. Hikari pointed out the Dual Masters club, the A.I. builders club, the magical girl club, and lastly a room full of people with weird helmets on their heads. "Hikari, what is wrong with these people?"  
  
Her voice laden with sadness, "They started playing 'The World' and well they gave up on real life in favor of it." Both students looked at the souls lost to the virtual word that stole their lives. Shutting the door behind them the pair headed to the front gates.  
  
The girl's patience and caring voice wormed its way into Shinji's mind. "Thank you Hikari for showing me all of this. It was very kind of you." Bowing softly to her, Shinji didn't see the proverbial cupid's arrow strike her in the chest. "I'll see you tomorrow."  
  
Unable to speak in coherent words, she mumbled a little of a parting word and watched him go. Walking up to her, Minato and Ami watched him departing, "Who'd have thought that he really was the guy on that web page AND a pilot. You know we have to get him right?"  
  
Hikari found herself nodding to the other girl's comments. From her post high on a telephone pole Kos-Mos took mental pictures of each girl for future elimination.  
  
Things would have ended well that day for him, but Shinji heard a sound he knew he wished he hadn't, the angel siren was being sounded. "Dammit! And today was going so well to!"  
  
-------------------------------------------------------------------------  
  
Author Notes  
  
Well hope you liked it ^_^ And remember all of this is basically off the top of my head. And yes those were the Minato and Ami from Bishojo Senshi SailorMoon hehe he  
  
Today's Manga Ai Yori Aoshi. It's a lot like love hina but with a solid character pairing right off the top! Aoi is another blue haired overly polite and classical character.  
  
Now for the Omake  
  
The updated battle lines Otaku-Dman sides with Rei  
  
Chewy Sides with Mana  
  
Golden Kitsune Sides with Kos-Mos  
  
Kusinagi Sides with Asuka  
  
SoulFire Sides for Rei  
  
Xeo Sides with Kos-Mos  
  
Konos the Grey Sides with Kos-Mos  
  
So as this moment the Kos-Mos attack force is in the lead!!! But all things can be swayed with your voting! 


	4. Growing Relations

Standard disclaimer!  
  
Well taking a minor break from OoD to bring you another bout of pure on the spot humor. Hope you're enjoying this fic cause I'm really having a ball writing it.  
  
For those avid gamers out their www.xenophase.net is a great place to go. They offer a free Ragnarok Online server. Game is EVIL! EVIL I say! He he. Well back to the keyboard.  
  
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------  
  
What We Make of It  
  
Chapter 4 Growing Relations -or- The chapter that comes after three  
  
Viewing the larger than needed display monitor, Misato swore very loudly. After her bout of swears she continued in a more subdued voice, the tranquilizer dart Ritsuko shot into her taking affect, "Where the devil is Shinji?"  
  
Slowly sliding the blowgun back into her stalking and away from prying eyes, Ritsuko agreed with Misato. "He's our only pilot since Rei took Unit- 00's head off." The fake blond finished with a glare at the first child. "Rei why didn't you bring him here with you when you came?"  
  
Now garbed in a dark blue kimono accented with powder blue lotuses and a red waistband that matched her eyes, Rei looked at her balled fists that were on her lap. Oddly enough nobody at Nerv questioned Rei's new choice in clothing or why she was seated in the command center instead of being in her plug suit and on standby. "We were separated when the class assaulted him."  
  
Through the drug-induced haze Misato found herself in, she caught the changes in Rei's personality. "Ahh! You...you are all peaceful nah. That's nice...night." Gracefully planting her face on her consol Misato was out like a light, leaving Ritsuko to wonder if three darts to the neck would actually kill her friend.  
  
Although her new persona wouldn't allow a violent outburst, Rei spoke just loud enough to regain Ritsuko's attention. "Akagi-san is it possible to contact Kos-Mos-san and have her bring Shinji-sama to base?" The only thing keeping fear from oozing in Rei's words was the tempered refinement she now possessed. 'I can't let them know how dear he is to me!'  
  
Looking at Misato and discreetly nudging the prone body with her foot, Ritsuko wondered why she hadn't thought of that. "Great idea Rei! Now how to get a hold of her..."  
  
---------  
  
'Master, Master, Shinji-sama where are you?' Kos-Mos continued to repeat in her mind as she jumped from telephone poll to telephone poll. She had momentarily stopped her pursuit of him after some larger male assaulted him. She replayed the memory feed in her mind and recalled the shorthaired male saying something about a little sister than striking her master. Not wanting Shinji to see the execution she followed the dead man to his house and marked it for her return visit.  
  
Just as the semi-human was about to make yet another impossible jump her internal communicator clicked on. The garbled voice of Ritsuko Akagi was heard inside her mind. "Kos-Mos an angel is about to attack the city and we don't know where Shinji-kun is! If he doesn't get to base and pilot the angel may kill us all!"  
  
Wanting to tell the 'good doctor' to go suck a lemon and get another sacrificial pilot, Kos-Mos sighed and reminded Ritsuko that she wasn't to be ordered by anybody but her 'Master.' Scanning the surrounding streets for any sign of her loving/lovely Shinji-sama, Kos-Mos made a mental note to give Shinji something to allow her to find him easily. "Wonder if he'll let me install a chip into his skin or maybe a tracking collar!"  
  
Kos-Mos's collar idea took a nasty turn when she thought it would be nice for her to 'play' as his master and her face went from pale to pink. Upping her efforts to find her master Kos-Mos found something else, the angel.  
  
Unlike her stupid brother, Shamshel didn't like to play with others. No she preferred to jump rope alone, so using her tendrils as a length of rope the 'lil' angel was destroying Tokyo-3 in the worlds most destructive game of double Dutch.  
  
Watching the squid like terror viciously attacking Shinji-sama's home, Kos- Mos started to feel very angry. Her devotion to her master kept her from acting. "I have to find him first! That wicked vile thing must wait till I find him!"  
  
Said 'wicked vile' thing was happily humming "What a Wonderful World," and having a great time in the sun playing.  
  
------------  
  
Rubbing his still soar face, Shinji rushed through the now familiar surroundings of the Nerv base. 'Wonder how Ayanami got here so fast?' he thought never realizing that the pilots had only to ask the section-2 agents for a ride back to base. His agents however were female and really like watching him run.  
  
Hurriedly putting his suit on, Shinji failed to notice the camera in this locker and the sounds of the shutter clicking. His mind was really on more important things like what did he do to that Suzuhara's sister.  
  
Pushing the pressurization button, Shinji heard and felt the plugsuit mold to his body's contours. Now prepared for combat, the boy's sense of self- hatred geared up for a little pre-battle defacement. 'You hurt somebody! You hurt a child!'  
  
Broken from their staring competition, Shinji's personal Section-2 agents met him, well let him see them as they had been behind him the whole time, and took him to his waiting entry plug.  
  
Insisting they help him into the Eva, Shinji tried not to think about the placement of the agents' hands or how that helped him get into the plug. 'I should thank them for helping me but...their hands are really close to HELLO!' Blushing softly, "Um I can manage myself now, thank you!"  
  
"No thank you Shinji-kun," the agent on the right said as they watched the small tampon shaped unit merge with its host. Both agents then had to discretely wipe the small stint of blood that had made a break for freedom from their noses.  
  
Never for one second did the Third Child realize that what just happened to him constituted as sexual harassment. Taking the stirrups in his hands, he did wonder why nobody from the control bridge had contacted him yet. Initiating the start up sequence his senses were assaulted by the menagerie of colors while another thought entered his mind, 'Is it me or does this really feel like a drug trip?'  
  
------------  
  
"No I don't think we should dress her in a bunny costume!" Ritsuko yelled for the umpteenth time at her coworkers. After her call to Kos-Mos, the rest of the bridge crew noticed Misato's rather delicate situation. So owing up to having drugged her in the first place, Ritsuko took the defensive position above her fallen comrade. Her chair resting comfortably in her hands and above her head, Ritsuko was poised to strike. "And no you can't have you picture taken with her!"  
  
Having moved to a couch on the far side of the bridge, Rei watched silently. Her mind in turmoil as she wanted to tell the others that Shinji had just engaged the angel and seemed to be having troubles. She tried calling out to them a few times but they seemed more interested in how Misato's shirt opened a bit as she hit the ground than in the angel. 'Wonder what the commander is thinking right now?' She thought as the peered up at Gendo's private viewing box.  
  
From his position high above the rest of the command staff, Gendo was seated. Gendo felt good, he was good, and he wasn't paying attention to anything at all. So high up was he that nobody could tell what he was doing. Fuyutsuki knew, but he was playing Go with him so it didn't matter. Both men could care less what was happening right now. All they knew was that they had two more bottles of saki and that the game had just started.  
  
"How do you think they're doing?" Fuyutsuki mumbled as he placed is white piece on the board almost completing flanking several of Gendo's.  
  
Sparing a few moments to actually look at the screen, Gendo saw Unit-01's pallet rifle get destroyed and heard the frantic scream of his son over the intercom. "Seems fine." He then smiled as he put his piece down and caught Fuyutsuki off guard and scored a complete surround. "Today is a good day."  
  
-----------  
  
"Ok, it destroyed my gun, is throwing me around the city, and nobody is helping me," Shinji said to himself hoping he was forgetting something that could actually be considered helpful. When that failed he looked at the angel and wondered what it was thinking, while he for that matter was thinking, 'I'm screwed.'  
  
Shamshel floated ever closer to the nice lady she had found. After playing with the purple lady for a little while Shamshel thought it was time they started to jump rope. 'Sure I like to play alone but she seems nice and it's always better when I don't have to twirl the rope.' Picking up her playmate, the red angel guessed her friend wanted to play patty cake based on the hand movements.  
  
'This is so much fun!' She thought as she pattied a little to hard and sent Unit-01 crashing into a, was, large building. 'This is good but we need a rope to play with! Ah there's one!' Shamshel spotted Shinji's umbilical power cord and not knowing the first thing about electricity, humanity, or how many angels COULD dance on the top of a pin, she cut it away from Unit- 01.  
  
"SHIT! HELLO SOMEBODY? I'm running out of power here. Could somebody please...oh crap." Feeling himself being lifted and hurled across the town again, Shamshel threw her friend over by the rope so they could play.  
  
Landing on a grassy hillside, Unit-01's external sensors picked up something abnormal, if you consider humans as compared to alien invaders abnormal. Two humans were cowering between Unit-01's fingers. Looking at the tiny screen on his viewer, Shinji recalled the faces as belonging to the boy that hit him and his friend. 'If I were to sneeze right now...'  
  
Shaking his head of such thoughts as cruel, cowardly, and distasteful, Shinji quickly opened his entry plug and let the boys inside. His conscious and chronically ill sense of pride wouldn't stand for letting innocents die. Shinji heard the light splashing behind him and pulled the plug back into position.  
  
Growing agitated with her reluctant playmate, Shamshel lashed out in a fit. 'All I wanna do is play! Why won't you play with me!' She kept trying to say as she lacerated Unit-01's hands with her energy tendrils.  
  
Catching the squirming lines of sheer pain in his hands, Shinji wanted to scream in pain. He would have if he were able to breath, but Touji's arm around his throat kept him from doing so.  
  
Touji didn't like being afraid, he hated it actually because whenever he became scared his mind, small as it was, left him. The near death experience he just experienced had put him on edge, and now looking down the throat of a murderous killing machine, aka small child, Touji's body went into flight mode. "You have to run away man! Please run? We're going to die!"  
  
Behind to cowering Touji, Kensuke crying into his destroyed camera. "All that footage gone!" To the Military nut, being inside the Eva was as close to Heaven he could get without being tossed off a cliff. "Touji quite killing Hikari's new boy toy and let him fight so I can try to salvage my film!"  
  
SNAP! If one could actually hear the sounds inside another's brain that was what they would have heard in Touji Suzuhara's mind. Fear was replaced with anger at Kensuke's words. "HIKARI? What the hell is he doing with Hikari?" Touji's hands slipped off Shinji's neck as he turned for clarification from his buddy.  
  
'If she won't play jump rope with me how about we play doctor!" Shamshel reasoned as she shoved her tendrils into Unit-01's side in hope of opening her up and seeing the insides.  
  
At his breaking point, the poor fried mind of Shinji Ikari could take no more. The battle, the attack from behind, and now the pain resulted in his angst filled scream, one that Unit-01 mimicked, and was heard by on very pissed off Kos-Mos.  
  
Upon hearing her master's pain filled bellow, Kos-Mos realized that the fools hadn't used the angel girl to fight, but her own master. "How dare they not tell me they had found him!" Rushing to her master's aid, Kos-Mos broke not only the sound barrier, but also the barrier of well um...I really can't think of something to say but it was really fast.  
  
Leaping unto the chest of the fallen behemoth, the semi-human could feel her love in pain, and that caused her to fall into a fit of rage only a certain yet to be named redheaded pilot could match. Her eyes slowly shifted from blood red to a cerulean blue and her normally blank face was now marred with hate. Turning her left arm into her trusty R-Cannon, she targeted the still oblivious angel.  
  
"Target the center, pull the switch," Kos-Mos fired and sent a beam of pure energy through the angel's core and kept on going, where in three million years reached a small planet called Krypton and obliterated it.  
  
Back on earth, the defeated Shamshel collapsed on the body of Unit-01 who had just ran out of power. Inside the beast, Touji and Kensuke pleaded with the panting child before them to let them out. Shinji was happy to oblige as his vision was fading due to the pain. Hitting the emergency exit button, all three boys found themselves on the ground. To be more honest, two boys were on the ground and the third was protectively clutched to the chest of Kos-Mos.  
  
Rubbing her cheek against Shinji's face, Kos-Mos's blue eyes were laden with tears. "Don't scare me like that Shinji-sama, you just can't do that."  
  
"Miss is he going to be ok?" Touji tried to say coherently, but seeing a very well endowed semi-nude woman was threatening to cause him to hemorrhage.  
  
Getting to his feet and trying to get as much of the LCL off as possible, Kensuke added, "We didn't mean to cause him trouble. Touji's just over dramatic."  
  
Targeting Touji, Kos-Mos lanced him to the ground with a fierce stare. "I am going to kill you for what you did to my Shinji-sama!" Draping said Master over her shoulder, Kos-Mos locked on target. "Say your prayers, as if it would do you any good."  
  
Before he was blessed with sleep Shinji stopped Kos-Mos by running his hand across her cheek. "Don't...it was my fault."  
  
With more immediate concerns, Kos-Mos just looked at the boy as her eyes shifted back to red. "You got off lucky. But if you hurt him again..." the voice trailed off as Kos-Mos jumped into the air and towards Nerv Medical.  
  
Watching the woman leave Touji couldn't contain himself, "Oh man I love her!" Kensuke was in a similar state of shock and admiration. Both boys now knew that the boy that looked like a shawl at this point was soon to be a close and dear friend. 'If he can get me closer to her, I'd give him my left arm!'  
  
----------------  
  
"I better not get used to seeing that ceiling," Shinji said aloud when he woke in the hospital again. For the fourteen years he'd been alive he'd not spent more than three days in the hospital. Now he'd been hospitalized twice in the matter of a month. No, things weren't looking good for him.  
  
Looking around the room, he spotted Rei napping as she leaned against the wall in a chair. 'She looks very good in a kimono!' Shinji's libido said before it was again crushed by his self-abuse circuit and was sent to work in the colon mines. 'When did she have time to change?' he absently thought as he gazed upon her.  
  
A light rap on his door drew his attention away from the girl that he was started to hope actually cared for him. Misato quietly opened the door and stole into the room, camera in hand. "Damn he's awake," she said quietly the more loudly, "Shinji-kun what were you thinking fighting like that?"  
  
Honestly he thought he was doing his duty, "Trying to stop the angel?" He hoped he was right but the look Misato was giving him wasn't the most appreciative.  
  
Sitting on his bed, the older woman took the boy's hand in hers. Speaking in low tones to keep Rei from waking, "But you didn't have any support! You shouldn't have acted so rashly. But I have to ask...how did you put the hole through it?"  
  
Confused that Misato didn't know anymore than he did as to why he wasn't dead. "You mean you weren't watching?" Shinji's sense of warning kicked in again when Misato started rubbing his hand with her thumb and she started leaning closer to him. "Misato-san what are you doing?"  
  
Giving Rei's body a quick glance to insure she was in fact still asleep, Misato leaned closer still. "I was so worried about you. I must have blacked out." Her free hand absently rubbed the bumps that the darts left. "They say that near death situations instill the urge to procreate in humans...do you think that's true?"  
  
'She's teasing me again!' Shinji rationalized as Misato's foot extended to the door and hit the lock. 'I mean what else could she be doing,' yet as he tried to calm himself he wasn't fighting her off with sharp pointy implements either. "Don't tease me Misato-san. Why weren't you helping during the battle?"  
  
Looking at her small cowering prey, Misato shivered in anticipation. 'Maybe I can have a few action shots this update.' But her rather odd sense of fun was cut short as a sharp knock on the door awoke the sleeping Rei.  
  
"Katsuragi-san what are you doing! Shinji-san needs his rest!" Rei shouted as she jumped to her feet and thrust her hands down at the floor. She had been so worried about him when Kos-Mos brought him in that she hadn't left his side.  
  
Letting her breath go in a large gasp, Misato reminded herself where Shinji lived. 'They'll be other times.' Getting off the bed, Misato ruffled Shinji's hair lightly. "You did good today Shinji, just don't go alone again ok?" As her hand left the boy's head, Misato gasped at the smile on his face, 'Maybe today...as soon as he gets back...damn Rei!'  
  
Rei, having unlocked the door, stood to the side as the nurse walked into the room with a cart of food. "Sorry but visiting hours are over for today, and Ikari-san here is scheduled for one nights rest here."  
  
'I hope this isn't some sick joke of Ritsuko's,' Misato thought as she led a sniffling Rei out of the room. Rei, who had now identified Misato as Miyabi from her manga, didn't mind showing her concern in front of her. "Come on Rei. He'll only be here for one night!"  
  
Back in his room, Shinji drew his sheets a bit higher up on his chest. After Misato's round of teasing, he wasn't ready for the nurse to come in. The nurse who Shinji noticed was well beyond what normal people call attractive. 'Father must have odd higher polices for Nerv and its branches.'  
  
Adorned in a high cut white skirt, Shinji's nurse set a few trays of food out for him. Shinji noticed her short red hair seemed to fit her head like a helmet. "Um, miss I'm not that hungry is that alright?"  
  
Stopping in her preparations, she smiled and looked at Shinji. Her eyes, the color of a flawless emerald drew him into them, and well made him very ashamed of some of the thoughts his mind was assaulting him with. "That's ok hun, you don't have to eat it all now."  
  
The sound of the woman's voice was so utterly relaxing and her eyes so bewitching, Shinji found himself relaxing. "Thank you ma'am."  
  
Clicking her tongue at him, the nurse waved her finger, "I'm not a ma'am, and I'm an assistant nurse. I'm in med school still. Name's Kyoshi Nakamura."  
  
"Sorry Nakamura-san I didn't mean to offend you," the boy's cracking voice attempted to say but was stopped by his sense of shame. He looked at the food then at the cart that Kyoshi was now getting something else out of. "Um what are you doing now?"  
  
'Such a cute boy,' Kyoshi thought as she remembered the last time he was under her care. Kyoshi was the nurse that attended the unconscious pilot after his last angelic encounter. Showing Shinji what she had in her hand was an oversized sponge, "If you're not going to eat its time for your bath."  
  
'Bath Sponge = sponge bath' His mind doing the calculation but didn't like what the equation equaled in the end. "I CAN DO IT MYSELF!"  
  
The smile never leaving her face, Kyoshi just shook her head, "Sorry hospital policy you see."  
  
Trying a last ditch effort to maintain some sense of pride Shinji pleaded, "Please let me do it myself?"  
  
Finding herself at the mercy of Shinji's plea, Kyoshi put the sponge back and smiled again. "You know many other men would have killed you for this, but I'll let you. Well I'll leave you in peace then." Leaving a few small trays of food behind, Kyoshi hoped that it wouldn't be long before the boy found himself in her care again.  
  
----------  
  
The remaining time in his room, Shinji spent in boredom. He watched a small amount of television and was confused when a current events television show claimed to have the first pictures of the Evangelion ever, 'Didn't that person that IM'ed me in class have pictures?'  
  
He sampled the food and found it much to be desired and left much if it uneaten. As the eight o'clock hour reared its head he was visited by Nerv's very own dirty secret, Ritsuko Akagi.  
  
Pulling a folding chair close to his bed, Ritsuko watched as Shinji pulled himself up into a seated position. "Hello Akagi-san is their anything I can do to help you?"  
  
"First I want to apologize for the fiasco that the angel battle turned into, even asleep Misato finds ways to haunt me," Ritsuko said with a hint of exasperation. Flipping over some blank papers on her clipboard to make it look like she had a reason to be there. "I have a few questions for you before you turn in for the night, is that alright?"  
  
Feeling himself blessed to have something to do, Shinji quickly nodded. "How are you feeling right now? Any vision problems, pains, memory loss, sudden urges to glomp people?" Ritsuko asked in a very 'I'm just going down the list' sort of voice.  
  
Eyes bugging out of their sockets, Shinji asked for clarification, "What was that last one?"  
  
"I'll take that as a no for all questions. Now, how is Kos-Mos doing? Nerv put a lot of money into her creation and we can't let something happen to her." Her own personal interest in Kos-Mos was merely to find a flaw. 'Damn Shion and her precious creation! Why couldn't Gendo just let Rei I stay dead!'  
  
Nervously bunching the sheets in his hand, Shinji didn't know how to really address that question. "She seems fine most of the time, she just doesn't seem to have much tact."  
  
"How's the manual helping you? Did you find out about any self destruct buttons, ways to incriminate her, incinerate her, or anything like that?" Ritsuko asked as she grasped at as many straws as she could.  
  
'CRAP THE MANUAL,' Letting out a nervous laugh, the boy lowered his head even further, "Kos-Mos kinda destroyed it when she was fighting Misato- san."  
  
"NOOOOOOOOO! NOW I'LL HAVE TO CALL SHION BACK TO BASE!" The doctor screamed as she threw the clipboard at the wall and ran out of the room crying. She left behind a very confused and hoping that whoever this Shion person was that they didn't kill him, Shinji.  
  
------------  
  
The next morning, Shinji found himself sitting in the hospital waiting room awaiting his ride home. After he heard the page the previous night about how Ritsuko got on the roof and was firing a handgun at random planes, Misato called him. She informed him that Kos-Mos was sleeping in his closet and that she would pick him up early.  
  
His watch now said noon and he was growing hungry. As he pat his rumbling stomach he felt a sharp pain in his leg. Looking at his leg he found the cause, "Are you ok?" he asked the small child that had not only collided with him but was clutching his leg for dear life.  
  
"You have to help me mister! Those men are going to do things to me!" the young girls voice struck a cord in Shinji.  
  
Guessing the girls age to be about five or six years of age, he couldn't believe somebody would do her harm, so he took her in his arms and ran out of the hospital. "Don't you worry I'll keep you safe!"  
  
Feeling utterly safe and secure in the nice man's arms, Experiment 239, relaxed in the first time in many weeks. "Thank you mister!" No other words were spoken as Shinji carried the small girl as far from the hospital as possible. Running several city blocks away, the two found themselves in a small restaurant.  
  
"Care for some food?" Shinji asked hopefully as his own stomach was rebelling against him in very loud and painful ways. He set her down when she nodded. Taking the seat across from him, Shinji finally was able to grasp her appearance.  
  
She really did look nothing over five years old, her hair was long and black, and again she seemed to have greenish eyes. "Thank you mister," the girls voice finally found some strength that allowed Shinji to hear her without having to lean over her.  
  
"My name is Ikari Shinji, now what was happening to you at that hospital?" He figured she was just scared from a shot or she was separated from her parents. 'She just looked so scared I don't know what came over me!'  
  
Sipping the drink that just arrived, "My name is Attim, and scary men kept making me do tests and stuff." The girl's eyes seemed to see only Shinji, her knight in no Armour. "What will we do now?"  
  
Before Shinji could answer, the door opened and Ritsuko, accompanied by a squad of agents, burst in and over to their table. "There you are Attim! How dare you run away you know you'll die if we don't help you."  
  
Stepping between Ritsuko and Attim, Shinji stood his ground, "What are you talking about Akagi-san she's fine, and terrified!" Now staring down Ritsuko was hard for Shinji, the agents with her however were more than he could stand. Sweat sliding down his face he felt the small hands of Attim latch on to his jeans.  
  
"Shinji-kun? How did you find her? Anyway she HAS to come back with us." The doctor wasn't in a patient mood, word of Shion's arrival in a few days didn't help her much, and an escapee of Attim's prowess could soon cause massive damage. Shinji was defiant though and refused to hand the child over.  
  
Wanting to be back to his old job of watching the security camera, one of the agents pushed past Ritsuko and shoved Shinji away from the small girl. "She's coming with us or I'll make it so you have to stay in the hospital!"  
  
Her hand flying towards her blowgun, Ritsuko wasn't about to let the agent have his way, but the timid voice of Attim cut the air, "I'll go back."  
  
Looking at her at eye level from his place on the floor, Shinji was flabbergasted. "But I thought you..." His voice was lost as the child hugged him lightly and kissed his cheek before wordlessly following the agents away. Left feeling lower than the dirt stuck in his shoes for not being able to help the girl, Shinji paid his bill and started walking home in a depressed state.  
  
"HOLD IT RIGHT THERE!" a voice called out from above him as he neared his apartment.  
  
Doing exactly what the voice said, Shinji soon found himself surrounded again. But this time his assailants were kinda off. There were five of them, all with white tops and a bow in the center, and very VERY female from the looks of it.  
  
"We're the Sailor Scouts! And we demand you come with us!" The five chanted in unison.  
  
Shinji just stared at them in shock. "I'm really regretting coming here."  
  
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Author Notes  
  
Well another odd chapter done And don't worry about Attim, I'm sure some of you already know about her. If you don't you'll find out later.  
  
Hope you like this and hope you review it  
  
Omake time! Updated Battle Lines!! Otaku-Dman sides with Rei Vibious with Rei SoulFire Sides for Rei  
  
Macavity the Mystery Cat sides with Rei Dark Machine sides with Rei Philg sides with Rei Kusinagi Sides with Asuka Nova10 sides with Asuka Xeo Sides with Kos-Mos Konos the Grey Sides with Kos-Mos Golden Kitsune Sides with Kos-Mos Player 0 sides with Mana Steve Vader sides with Mana Chewy Sides with Mana Zang-sama sides with Blue haired girls Remenants sides with Shion Uzuki  
  
So the new leader is REI AYANAMI! Well things are always apt to change so...um vote! 


	5. The Quiet Moments

Standard Disclaimer  
  
Well here I am again with another chapter of this. Honestly I'm surprised you all are still reading it Its just a lot of improve, and here I was hoping for more of a turn out for OoD, my Eva/Love Hina fic. Oh well them are the breaks I suppose. Lots of comments but not to many people siding with their favorite characters so...VOTE MAN! Don't let Rei win if you're not a Rei fan. If you are a Rei fan VOTE TO KEEP HER IN THE LEAD. The leading character does get a bit more show time in the chapter to come so there is your incentive.  
  
Well enough of my blathering, you want funny and I shall try my best to apiece ya.  
  
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What We Make of It Chapter 5: The quite moments  
  
Or  
  
Why Nerv fears Ritsuko Akagi  
  
Being surrounded by attractive women, especially when they had skirts that looked more like belts, would make most guys swell with pride and happiness, but they weren't Shinji. No Shinji was still depressed after his failure to protect Attim in the diner. Looking at the blue haired girl and the blond that didn't have the pigtails, he could feel his self-abuse circuit kick in telling him, 'You deserve whatever they throw at you, you failure!'  
  
Still facing the same two girls he tried to open the line of communication. "Are you cos-players? Your costumes are very nice." Why he tried talking about that, he didn't know. He just wanted to go home and stare at his ceiling.  
  
Minato blushed at the praise and struck a very haughty pose, leaning forward and offering a glimpse of certain body parts, eliciting a very severe blush from Shinji. "Why thank you, now if you'll just come with us."  
  
His hormones fighting his sense of self hate, Shinji couldn't pull his eyes away from the girl that spoke to him. Bending over slightly and showing what her bow was hiding, Minato was overly pleased with the response.  
  
Usagi stepped closer to Shinji before she spoke hoping to gain his attention. "We're not cos-players. We are the Sailor Senshi! Champions of Justice!"  
  
Turning to face the pig-tailed girl, "That's great and all but what does it have to do with me?" Shinji asked as he started to back away from the five girls, and finding his back literally against a wall as he failed to remember where he was.  
  
Makoto licked her chops as she approached the boy and laid her hand on his shoulder, "We've seen certain photos and couldn't be stopped." Her eyes wandered the prone body of the boy she was so close to assaulting. 'Have to check to make sure Minato wasn't lying though.'  
  
'Photos, they saw the Eva pictures and think I'm evil or something!' Fear started to make its usual appearance about now. Shinji and fear were on very good terms at this stage in his life, so as his knees started to wobble and his breath came out in small bursts, Shinji wasn't at all surprised. "Look I can explain those pictures. I didn't mean for it to be like that it just...kinda happened."  
  
"But it 'is' like that so..." Ami said as she inched closer to the boy, "Shinji don't worry it won't hurt." The scouts much like a swarm of vultures started to close in on their prey. Rei and Usagi were slightly startled by Ami's sudden zeal for this mission but they couldn't blame her. 'It's always the quiet ones.'  
  
'I'm going to die, I'm going to die, I'm going to die,' Shinji's mantra repeated as he saw the Champions of Justice closing in for a swift kill. But his salvation came from an odd place. Just before the Senshi could all grab a hold of him, a rose pierced the air and landed embedded in the concrete at his feet.  
  
"Stop right their you tempter of women!" a man wearing a very silly tuxedo, top hat, and odd mask yelled in Shinji's direction.  
  
The result of the man's appearance was to stop the advances of the women as they turned to face him, some of them said with a hint of anger, "Tuxedo Mask."  
  
Leaping down from his post high atop the car guardrail, the Masked moron tripped over his shoes and ran over to the girl with pig-tails. "Usagi what the hell is going on here? What about us?"  
  
Finding his would be captors distracted Shinji started his slow move towards freedom and continued existence. The girl, Usagi if Shinji heard right started yelling "There is no more 'us' you saw to that!"  
  
Rei sided with Usagi, "We all know what you did! You can't deny it." The black haired girl put a supportive hand on her friend in spite of adversity. From his vantage point Shinji could have sworn he saw those girls someplace before.  
  
Falling to his knees, Mamoru started pleading, "Professor Tomoe said it was an experiment, I didn't know it was that type of experiment!"  
  
Ami, blushing softly added her thoughts, "You seemed to be very happy about it at the time though." Using her portable computer she replayed a few scenes captured on camera, much to Mamoru's discomfort.  
  
"I'm not gay though! I was just confused!" Mamoru exclaimed as he drew his cape to his face.  
  
Now about a block away from the Senshi, Shinji still heard the comment and thought, 'with that costume even I have a hard time believing him, not that there is anything wrong with that though.' He didn't say that out loud though because he really didn't want to bring their attention back to him and he was so close to being home.  
  
Back over by with the Senshi however things took a rather fortuitous turn as a policeman walked up next to the now crying Tuxedo Mask and slapped handcuffs on him. "You're under arrest for the theft of two dozen roses and disturbing the peace."  
  
The Senshi looked at him with disgust in their eyes, "You've been stealing those roses?" Pleading for the Senshi to support him and get him freed, Mamoru was devastated when the just turned their noses up at him.  
  
Ami was the first to notice after Mamoru was driven away in the back of the squad car, "He got away!"  
  
A collective groan was heard from the Senshi, but Ami reminded them that he would be easy to track.  
  
-------------------  
  
"So think he'll be in school today?" Kensuke asked as he tried for the umpteenth time to salvage his destroyed footage. "Been a couple days since he was here."  
  
Looking at the vacant desk that he was told Shinji would occasionally occupy, Touji just sighed and sank deeper into his seat. "Don't know. After what happened though I don't know if I could face him."  
  
"Him or the gorgeous woman that threatened to kill you?" the be-speckled boy asked as he allowed himself a small daydream where it was him being carried off. It went bad and his nose erupted in blood.  
  
Shaking off the shivers that remembering the death threat brought on he looked around the room again. "Him of course, but I wouldn't mind dying by her hands though."  
  
Tilting his head back to stint the flow of blood from his nose, Kensuke added a bit more pressure to his tissue. "You could always ask Ayanami about him if you want, she's actually in class today."  
  
Surprised at Kensuke's little fount of information, Touji spied Rei's desk and for the first time in about a year saw it was actually occupied. "Why would she know about him?" Touji asked showing his inability to link two similar thoughts together.  
  
"Did you flush your brain down the toilet? She works for Nerv, he works for Nerv it isn't hard to picture her knowing at least something about him." Kensuke smiled as he withdrew the tissue and didn't see any fresh blood.  
  
"I guess I could ask her. Maybe she knows where he lives." Touji said as he got out of his seat and tentatively approached the reading Rei. Taking a quick moment to see what manga Rei was reading he let out a small chuckle. "I didn't picture you as a girl to read 'Oh! My Goddess.'"  
  
Putting her cherished book down, Rei looked at the boy who had approached her. Her face now adorned with a triangle on each cheek and on her forehead, Rei had oddly adapted Urd as her personality structure after reading her book this time. "You're the boy that attacked Shinji weren't you?"  
  
Now Touji wasn't by any means a small guy. He ran track, lifted some weights, and tried to stay in good shape. So when he looked in Rei's eyes and felt abstract terror, he knew something was wrong. And it was, it was very very wrong. "Um...Ayanami-san it was a misunderstanding that's all."  
  
Using her angelic powers, Rei scanned Touji's mind. "So you want to know where he lives do you? I'll draw you a map." Five seconds later Rei's pencil receded from Touji's back, where she had just drawn a very detailed map to Shinji's apartment, all without ever sharpening the pencil.  
  
----------------  
  
"I'm home," Shinji barely said as he took his shoes off and shambled deeper into Misato's den. It had taken him the better part of the day to get him and he reasoned school had just gotten out as he opened the door. He wasn't upset that his guardian hadn't picked him up like she said she would and that he had to walk the ten miles back home. To be mad at her would have taken a smidgen more self esteem than he had so he just took it as his deserved punishment.  
  
Walking further into the apartment and still not hearing Misato's usual chipper hello, Kos-Mos's normal polite bow and often hug, or the two of them trying to kill one another Shinji grew a bit nervous. "Is anybody home? Hello?"  
  
Still hearing no response he finally found himself in the living room, where he spotted one of his fellow flat mates. "So that's why she didn't get me," the boy murmured softly as a smile wafted to his face. Heading to the remains of Misato's room, Shinji recovered a rather odd smelling blanket and proceeded to drape it over his guardian.  
  
Snoring like a chainsaw and covered in beer cans, Misato was the pinnacle of modesty. Opting to sleep in her underwear because she forgot how to turn the air conditioner on, Misato had yet to wake from her night of Shinji absence. The moment he put the blanket on her she clutched at it and drew it to her chin as she turned to her side.  
  
'K...kawaii!' The young boy couldn't ward off the thought that his protector suddenly looked like a small child. With a strong smack to his face, Shinji banished such pleasant thoughts, deeming himself unworthy, and made his way to his room.  
  
Sliding his door to the side the boy wandered into the only room that still had all four walls, the contractor was due to fix the apartment in the next day or two. He was greeted by a vision that sent his heart into his chest in under a second. "KOS-MOS WHAT'S WRONG?"  
  
Laying face down on his floor, Kos-Mos didn't respond vocally, she pushed herself up off the ground to face her master. Her eyes locked onto his and a smile blossomed on her somber face.  
  
Rushing the short distance between himself and the fallen semi-human, Shinji turned her onto her back and cradled her head in his lap. "What's wrong? Say something!"  
  
Her energy fading fast, Kos-Mos didn't have the strength to speak. She had spent so much of her power on obliterating the horrendous child angel that she dipped below the threshold at which the sun could have recharged her. Gazing at her love that hovered over her like her own personal angel, Kos- Mos's hand slowly made its way to his cheek and caressed it. 'I guess this is the end for me. Good-bye Master I love you.'  
  
Not being as dumb as he usually thinks he is, Shinji was quick to assess Kos-Mos's problem. "You need to recharge!" Gripping his necklace firmly, Shinji pulled it over his head and took the key in his hand. "I don't think this should hurt you but I don't know."  
  
Having never been told about her other potential charger, Kos-Mos just looked at Shinji as he rolled her over onto her back. Fear that her Master had rejected her due to her weakness, her heart filled with sadness. 'I failed him! If I could survive I'd make it up to him, but its impossible!'  
  
Looking all over Kos-Mos's back, Shinji had to fight with himself again. He found what he suspected was the keyhole but it was right in the small of her back. 'Why did it have to be so far down on her back...its kinda close to her... NO be strong she needs help!' The crimson on his face did much to detract from his noble intentions. Taking a deep breath Shinji inserted the key into Kos-Mos's back and started to wind it.  
  
'Oh MY!' Was the only thing that Kos-Mos could think as the key was inserted. Not being well versed in physical sensation she just knew she was overwhelmed with a very positive feeling. Each turn of the key Kos-Mos's power swelled within her as the sensation built. Soon her back was arching in what Shinji thought was abstract pain but was defiantly not causing her anything of the sort.  
  
"I'm sorry Kos-Mos but you need this. It'll be over soon." Shinji shushed in calming tones, taking the panting that was escaping Kos-Mos's lips as a sign she was getting her strength back but at the cost of great hardship.  
  
Proving that women can be just as perverted as men, Shion's alternate power source for Kos-Mos entered its final stage and Kos-Mos went limp. Taking the key out of her back and putting it back around his neck, Shinji waited for Kos-Mos to do something.  
  
Looking very flush and with glazed over eyes, Kos-Mos got into a seated position and looked at Shinji. "Shinji-sama you did that for me?"  
  
Straining to hear the words that Kos-Mos weakly offered him he nodded. "I'm sorry about that but I didn't want you to...to die." He wasn't sure if die was the correct term as Kos-Mos wasn't fully human but it seemed to fit. 'What's that sound?' Shinji thought as a low guttural sound escaped from the bowels of Kos-Mos. 'Oh my Kami-sama she's growling at me!'  
  
Purring like a kitten in its owners lap, Kos-Mos pounced Shinji with the full intent making good on her promise, but was stopped by the sound of the doorbell. "Thank you Shinji-sama thank you so much!" She was able to say just after he got out of earshot and hurried to the door thinking she really wanted to slap him.  
  
'Guess she would be mad, Its my fault she got so run down, I did the key thing, I've just been pissing everybody off,' Shinji's one sided battle against himself quickly escalated when he opened the door and saw the boy that mistook his face for a punching bag. "AH!" He then proceeded to slam the door shut again and braced a chair against it.  
  
On the other side of the door that was closed again, Kensuke looked over at Touji. "I think he's still scared of you."  
  
Dropping his head in defeat, "Think it was too quick to come over here?" Touji didn't like the idea of the boy who saved his life, twice, being terrified of him. "Should I knock again?"  
  
Kensuke seemed to ponder the question, his mind totally fixated on the question at hand. Every iota of his sentience was poised on the quandary. He replied after every subtle nuance of the debate was weighted carefully, "I don't know."  
  
"Thanks a lot man, really I mean that." Throwing his hands up in defeat, Touji turned and headed back down the stairs. 'Guess I won't get to see that girl again either.'  
  
"Guess we won't be able to see that girl today," Kensuke voiced as the rounded the stairs. Seeing Kos-Mos was in fact Kensuke's main reason for going along with Touji, Shinji was on speaking terms with him so he didn't have Touji's problem.  
  
Not wanting to seem the pervert that he was, "Hey man we came to talk to Shinji, not ogle that girl! That girl with her long legs and cute face and..."  
  
Touji would have trailed onward with his comments had his drool not attracted attention from Kensuke. "Dude what was your reason for coming here?"  
  
"Shut up man!" Touji exclaimed as his face shown his embarrassment.  
  
Swatting his buddy on the back, hard, Kensuke couldn't help but laugh as Touji flinched. "The 'map' still hurt?"  
  
Tired of being the butt of jokes and abuse, Touji chose to dish some out and charged after the still laughing Kensuke.  
  
--------------  
  
'Ok so now I'm in Ritsuko's lab. What an odd turn this has been.' Shinji thought as he sat in his boxer shorts on a cold metal table. After he snuck out of his hiding place in the bathroom when he was sure Touji had left, his cell phone rang. Wanting to give Kos-Mos some time to calm down and hopefully not be so mad at him, he answered Ritsuko request for a few tests.  
  
It also gave him an option to talk to the doctor about the small girl Attim. Over the phone Ritsuko assured Shinji that Attim was fine and was just sent to an American base where a family was going to adopt her. It was a bold faced lie but Ritsuko knew Shinji would never know the difference.  
  
Looking around her lab the boy wondered what type of test she meant and why Rei wasn't needed for them. He also hoped Misato would eventually wake up and read his note about where he was. "Ritsuko-san I'm ready."  
  
Walking into her, up until Shinji's arrival vacant, lab Ritsuko surveyed her, as her mentor would say, guinea pig. 'Washu-sama is still locked in the deepest bowels of Nerv because of that one botched test.' Ritsuko thought sadly as she picked up her clip board from the desk. "Now Shinji- kun what did I say about your state of dress?"  
  
"I thought you this was good enough." Shinji said as a hint of embarrassment mixed with his speech. He really didn't see the need for him to take off the boxers.  
  
Waving her pen at him in an admonishing motion, "What did I say? A doctor's trust is sacred. Nothing that happens in this room will be spoken to another person without your consent." Ritsuko was just skeptical that's all. Hearing Misato go on and on about how Gendo was a sick bastard for what he did to Shinji, she just had to see for herself.  
  
Bowing his head in utter shame he lost his last bastion of protection and closed his eyes hoping the heat from his face didn't melt the walls. "N...now what is this test for Akagi-san?" Hearing no reply from the doctor he peeked on of his eyes open and saw her staring at him much to his utter shame, "Akagi-san?"  
  
'Damn she wasn't lying!' Shaking her head at Shinji's panicky voice, "Sorry about that I was thinking about...dry wall yeah I need to put dry wall up in my apartment." Her mind was laughing its ass off her now. 'Some genius you are 'dry wall' how dumb are you?'  
  
Really wanting to put his cloths back on, as well as a coat, an over coat, wrap himself in paper, and bury himself in the ground, Shinji felt a small piece of paper hit him in the chest. "What is this?"  
  
Still attempting to keep her eyes from getting sucked into the black hole region on Shinji's body Ritsuko looked sky ward. "It's a hospital gown, I forgot to give it to you before you got here so I had to wait."  
  
'I flashed the doctor! Oh Kami-sama she must think I'm a pervert!' Shinji rationally believed. Unfolding the gown and shoving it on so hard it ripped around the edges. "Sorry Akagi-san I'm so sorry."  
  
'I'm off the hook! He thinks he did wrong HAHA HA HAHAHAHHAHA!' Smiling broadly at her victim Ritsuko withdrew a syringe from desk drawer. "I'm going to test this on you. Don't worry it won't hurt you at all. Hold out your arm."  
  
Doing as he was told he felt Ritsuko's hand wrap around his wrist, 'her skin is very smooth,' he couldn't help but notice. "What is it going to do?"  
  
Injecting the yellow fluid into Shinji's arm, Ritsuko swabbed the injection point to prevent infection. "Stand up. This will be easier to show you than to tell you."  
  
Getting to his feet, an odd rush seemed to flow through his body. Shinji felt good very good. His whole body seemed to relax perfectly. "Amazing I feel great! Is that a pain killer or relaxant or something?"  
  
"Something like that," the blond admitted before continuing, "Now do the splits."  
  
His eyes dilated very quickly at the sound of that word, "I can't do that. I'm not that flexible Akagi-san!"  
  
Expecting such a reaction from just about anybody, Ritsuko was prepared for it. "Just try ok?" Knowing his psychological profile, she added some incentive, "After the trouble you caused with Kos-Mos's manual and Attim you could at least try."  
  
Having his buttons pushed perfectly the shame flooded over him. "I guess I could try." He looked at his body dubiously and slowly started to shift his legs in opposing directions, shockingly enough he slowly made his way completely to the ground without encountering any resistance. "Amazing!"  
  
"It's a total muscle relaxant. It not only relieves stress but resistance as well," Ritsuko informed the shocked pilot at her feet. 'His head is just abo...STOP IT!' Ritsuko chastised herself for her momentary contemplation of her patient.' She started to laugh lightly as Shinji marveled at his new ability. "Now the only problem is..."  
  
The problem was she didn't know how long the latter effect lasted. From his spot on the ground Shinji felt a new form of pain he never thought possible. One second he was perfectly capable of doing the splits then his body went back to its normal state, and it didn't want to do the splits and it made that fact very evident.  
  
"Shinji are you ok?" Concern marring Ritsuko's usual impassive face. She took note of the drop of sweat that slid down the boy's face before he pitched over on the ground. "Hmm...it only lasts about five minutes." Writing that tidbit of information down on her pad she noted that the test was a success.  
  
Seeing Shinji's eyes had shut, the 'good doctor' guessed the pain caused him to pass out. 'I could always test that one drug. He'd never know I did it because I'll use the antiserum and nobody would know!' Looking for any potential eavesdroppers, where she knew nobody was foolish enough to venture in her domain, Ritsuko descended on the boy with yet another fluid.  
  
--------------------  
  
Having no idea how he got home, Shinji just stirred his pot as he prepared supper. In the other room Ritsuko and Misato lounged around the table.  
  
"So did you help yourself to a little peek?" Misato chided her friend and prodded her in the side. From the look Ritsuko was giving Shinji's pants when the doctor brought him in, Misato could venture a guess.  
  
Breaking off eye contact Ritsuko started to cough in surprise, "Grow up Misato! I was doing legitimate research!"  
  
"Sure sure, I believe you Rits, really I do," her voice said the truth and that was 'you dirty old woman you stole a peek at him!' Feeling the lack of beer in her can, Misato have the can a little shake. Much to Ritsuko's astonishment, Shinji silently walked in, took the can, put a fresh can in Misato's hand and walked back in the kitchen. "Life is good."  
  
"What the hell are you doing to him?" The fake blond yelled in outrage. Sure she expected Misato to have some affect on the boy, she never thought she'd make a slave out of him.  
  
Opening her new can and taking a heavy drink, Misato let out a pleased sigh. "Nothing, he just started to do it one day." Which was true. "Anyway what was with you calling him out to perform experiments on him?"  
  
Looking away, Ritsuko didn't really want to talk about that little bit if truth. "Well nobody would volunteer after the last few went bad so I thought I could use him."  
  
"Went bad! We still haven't gotten the stain off the walls yet!" Misato exclaimed as she sloshed her beer around. Shivers went down the Captain's spine as memories of Ritsuko's zombie brigade stormed a munitions dump.  
  
Trying to change topics of herself, "You're evil. Anyway where's the walking hood ornament?" Ritsuko asked in reference to Kos-Mos  
  
Making her patenting thinking sounds, Ritsuko pleaded for her not to strain herself, Misato promptly flipped her off. "I remember, she said she needed parts for something she was making. Something to keep track of Shinji."  
  
Said target had just set the table, "Keep track of who?"  
  
"Nothing Shin-chan nothing. Oh you can just put that curry in the ramen ok?" Misato insisted in an attempt to not only make the other eaters sick, but also save time on the clean up, it was her turn after all.  
  
"You must have a cast iron stomach," Ritsuko said under her breath. "So Shinji, how are things going for you in school?"  
  
Taking his seat after getting Ritsuko and himself a plate of food, "Good I guess. Rei has been a great help in helping me get situated." He could have said terrible, painful, or wretched but he didn't want to upset the two women. Said women were just stealing peeks at the boy when he wasn't paying attention. Misato's were both adoring and fearful, she wasn't very happy with the growing crush she was having.  
  
Ritsuko, well Ritsuko was perplexed. The drug she hit him with didn't seem to work so she was afraid of a delayed response. "Ah good of you to mention Rei," Ritsuko reached into her bag and pulled out a laminated card, "Can you give this to her? I never have the chance."  
  
Taking Rei's card in his hand, Shinji looked at the picture of the odd girl. 'She says she loves me, that she likes me, but its all because of those books. She couldn't possibly like a person like me.'  
  
Seeing how intently Shinji was looking at Rei's picture, Misato felt pangs of jealousy, "Don't stare to hard Shinji-kun you may put a hole in it!" Pushing herself away from the table Misato went to her room, also known as Shinji's room.  
  
"What was that about?" Both Shinji and Ritsuko said to the other. With Misato's outburst out of the way, Ritsuko excused herself from the table and insisted Shinji help her with more experiments in the future then left.  
  
With nothing else to do, Shinji took a quick shower and got into his sleeping cloths. Seeing the light was off in his, hopefully for only another day, shared room, Shinji got into his futon and prayed Misato stayed on hers.  
  
She didn't so Shinji found himself again as Misato's teddy bear as she slept. 'Where is Kos-Mos, she isn't still upset with me is she?'  
  
---------------  
  
On the roof of the apartment, Kos-Mos was just finishing her creation. Holding what looked like a girl in her hand, it was dressed in a pink Middle Eastern fashion dress with an odd donut ring in its hair. The mini person seemed to scream out cute and pink at the same time.  
  
Pushing a small button on the side of the creature's head, Kos-Mos listened to the sounds of the processor kicking on. "Wake up Sumomo you have a job to do."  
  
Her eyes seeing life for the first time, the mobile persocom Sumomo smiled widely and began to hit her tambourine, "Morning Morning, Job, Job! Will do master!"  
  
Kos-Mos waived her finger, "No Sumomo your master is Shinji-sama. You will watch him always and keep me informed of what happens to him ok?"  
  
Her mission in life set, Sumomo linked up with Kos-Mos to learn as much about her new master as possible.  
  
Below the two machines, Shinji finally fell asleep in Misato's arms, and neither noticed how his chest expanded, his hair grew, and he stopped being a 'he.'  
  
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Author Comments  
  
Ok more oddities and even more anime mentioned. To be up to date I've used, Nadesico, Pita Ten, Ai Yuri Aoshi, Oh! My Goddess, Seraphic Feather, Sailor Moon, and Chobits, plus dashes of other shows. Hope you found it funny and continue to support it   
  
And remember the more comments I get the faster I'll be to write another chapter of this lil story here.  
  
Ja Mata  
  
Zentrodie (zentrodiesecondimpact.com)  
  
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Omake  
  
Updated battle lines! (Not to many updates this time ( )  
  
Those who side with Rei: Otaku-Dman, Vibious, SoulFire, Macavity the Mystery Cat, Dark Machine, Philg, NickNack Total: 7  
  
Those who side with Asuka: Kusinagi, Nova10, Vibious, Final Max, Kuraco Total: 5  
  
Those who side with Kos-Mos: Xeo, Konos the Grey, Golden Kitsune, ScienceMonkey, Nicknack, DarkChuchuo, Sybian Machine, Final Max Total: 8  
  
Those who side with Mana: Player 0, Steve Vader, Chewy, Rusty Knight Production Total: 4  
  
Zang-sama sides with Blue haired girls  
  
Those who side with Shion Uzuki: Remenants, Final Max Total: 2  
  
Epsilon is debating on who to side with  
  
So Kos-Mos takes the lead again! Lets hear you guys/girls support your favorite characters! And honestly if you pick somebody that's not listed...don't worry I'll find a way of adding them. As for myself I side with nobody cause that would make me biased   
  
AS for the Ikkikosen idea...I was really tempted to use it this chap but I'll save that for a later date. 


	6. How not to act like a woman

Standard disclaimer!  
  
Well as you prolly know by now I don't own any of the shows I borrow from and that this story is all improve...but I'll try my best to make it funny for you and that you'll enjoy it.  
  
The battle lines got a nice update and Asuka is growing in the polls! So Asuka fans show your support! Non-Asuka fans where are ya? Not hearing from you   
  
Asuka shot up from 3rd place up to being tied with Kos-Mos for second! Rei just barely squeaked out with the lead for this chapter but by only ONE vote! So grab your banners emblazoned with chibi's and vote, vote I say   
  
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What We Make of It  
  
Chapter 6 Understanding  
  
Or  
  
How A Girl isn't supposed to act  
  
As the morning's light cascaded into Misato's room, also known as Shinji's but she didn't need to tell him that, the purple haired woman stirred. Clutching the warm body next to her as she usually did when she woke, she noticed something was amiss. 'Don't tell me I got drunk last night and brought somebody home with me.'  
  
But for the life of her Misato couldn't remember ever doing so. 'I got upset with Shinji for staring at that picture of Rei and stormed off to bed.' Knowing that she would occasionally get drunk and not remember it, Misato did as close to a mental rewind as she could.  
  
Feeling the body next to her stir in her rather firm grasp, the elder woman noticed something else it was a woman. 'Oh hell no, don't tell me Ritsuko snuck in here!' That wasn't one of Misato's greatest memories that of finding an equally drunk and confused Ritsuko in her bed. Both women vowed never to speak or even think about what had happened that night.  
  
Pulling the covers off her sleeping partner's head, Misato let out a sigh of relief when her bed buddy was not blond but a longhaired brunette. "Thank Kami-sama for small favors," she said under her breath. Taking a closer look at the woman, Misato could have sworn she knew her. 'Wonder what Shinji's doing right now...oh shit Shinji!' Fears that the boy had not only seen but also heard something he shouldn't have, Misato opted to wake the girl and find out what happened.  
  
When the shaking didn't work, Misato tried yelling, that failed so then she poured the beer that she feel asleep with on her buddy's lap. That worked.  
  
"Oh no I wet the bed!" Misato's stranger yelped as the warm yellow liquid cascaded down her leg. Misato hoped Shinji wouldn't mind doing more laundry. "Misato-san I'm sorry I didn't mean to honest...I haven't done that since in was three I swear!"  
  
Fighting back the urge to laugh, Misato calmed the girl by putting her hands on her shoulders. Looking into the panicky girl's eyes, Misato noticed something. 'She has the same eye color as Shinji.' Waving the beer can in front of the girl's face to calm her down Misato added, "Sorry about last night, I don't remember what really happened."  
  
Shinji, still groggy with sleep despite his rude awakening, smiled at Misato. "It's ok Misato-san. Ritsuko-san left after you stormed off so things weren't that bad." Rubbing 'his' back, Shinji didn't know why it was so hard to sit up, as if something was pulling him down.  
  
Scratching her chin and looking away from the exhibitionist, Misato couldn't help but see how the girl's tiny shirt was stretched out by the, while no where near her bust size, chest. New fears entered her mind, one that Ritsuko had been with them and two the whole pedophilia thing again. "This is going to sound bad but, what's your name?"  
  
Getting into a better-seated position, Shinji felt a draft hit 'his' mid- section, 'that's odd this shirt usually fits so well.' Looking at Misato's still embarrassed face he didn't quite understand the question. "Misato-san it's me Shinji. You drink to much last night at dinner?"  
  
The irritation on his chest finally getting the better of him, Shinji went to scratch it. Finding to mounds of flesh that weren't there the previous night, Shinji looked down at himself. Then he looked at Misato, back to her chest, Misato, chest, Misato, chest. This went on for a few minutes.  
  
Shaking her head, Misato couldn't refute the similarities in the girl's face and Shinji's. After Shinji looked at his chest for the quite possibly hundredth time, both of them screamed.  
  
-------------  
  
"Now Shinji I'm sure that whatever caused this can be reversed," Misato said as Shinji put her breakfast on the table and took her own spot. Shinji looked more depressed than usual, that came after her first visit to the bathroom and her confirming the absence of a certain appendage. It also sounded the first time the young Ikari saw a nude woman in her life, and it was her own body.  
  
Pushing her eggs around on the plate, Shinji didn't really agree with Misato. "How can I go to school like this?" She gestured to her chest and pulling her long hair for emphasis. "I've missed too much school to stop going for however long it takes to fix this."  
  
"Afraid the guys may take notice in ya?" Misato teased the young woman before her. Mentally Misato was weighing the costs and potential benefits of a female Shinji. 'Sure the pictures are doing well but she IS cute too. I bet they'd sell just as good.' A dark impulse in the captain's mind really wanted to see how her new female ward looked outside her cloths.  
  
Trying to stand up but falling back to her seat due to not being used to the new center of gravity, Shinji bawled. "Be serious. Ritsuko-san's drug must have had a side affect or something!"  
  
Fighting back the urge now to put a camera in the bathroom, Misato just waved her hand in admonishment. "I'll talk to Ritsuko today at the base. You just go to school like normal. I'm sure...nobody will notice." Pushing her plate away from herself, Misato stretched back in her chair and relaxed.  
  
"How can they not notice I'm a girl!" Shinji pleaded for Misato to answer and she gathered the plates and started washing them. Like the good little slave she was, not that she knew she was a slave mind you.  
  
Misato's eyes blinked shut suddenly in exquisite pain, telling all that knew the woman that she had a thought. Rushing to the remains of her old bedroom, Misato gathered a few photos, returned to the kitchen and handed them to the confused dishwasher. "This should cover everything. If the teacher asks you any questions, just give him this. You may want to think of a new name for class."  
  
Her eyes perusing the pictures, Shinji didn't understand but, showing how gullible she really was, trusted Misato's judgment. 'Life just keeps getting harder for me,' the sad girl thought as she put the pictures in her satchel and headed for the door. "I'm going to leave early then Misato-san. If you see Kos-Mos please tell her I'm sorry for yesterday."  
  
Not having a clue as to what the boy turned girl meant Misato agreed to it. Misato wanted to drink heavily as soon as she heard the door shut. 'First I get a crush on my ward who's fourteen, now I have a crush on the fourteen year old girl!' Oddly the feeling of revulsion she first felt for her developing feelings for Shinji were draining. 'Well Mother always said to be open to new experiences.'  
  
----------------  
  
Out in the hallway, Shinji didn't need Misato's help with his android problem because Kos-Mos was just on her way back to the apartment when she stepped out. Finding her Master's body changed, Kos-Mos's internal scanner detected the foreign pathogen responsible for it. "Shinji-sama I see Akagi- kun has done something to you?"  
  
Spotting Kos-Mos approaching her, Shinji just nodded. "I don't know what she did but I'm pretty sure she caused this. It must have been a side affect though. She wouldn't have done this to me on purpose." She had no idea that the good doctor did do it on purpose and, if she knew it succeeded, would have been very proud of herself.  
  
Kos-Mos didn't share Shinji's positive outlook towards Ritsuko. Linking herself to a local GPS system Kos-Mos pinpointed Ritsuko's exact position, 'I'm going to talk to that woman, but first.' Bashfully reaching behind herself, Kos-Mos grabbed her creation. "Shinji-sama, I wish to thank you for saving me yesterday."  
  
Watching Kos-Mos fidget reawakened feelings of intense guilt in the girl. 'She's having a hard time with this because I caused her so much pain.' Shaking her head, Shinji just couldn't let Kos-Mos suffer. "I only wanted to help you. You don't have to thank me for, for that."  
  
Kos-Mos didn't want to thank Shinji, she wanted for her to do it again, but now wasn't the time. Wicked blond scientists needed punishment. Taking Shinji's hands in one of hers, she placed Sumomo in Shinji's outstretched palms. "This is Sumomo, she will keep you safe. I'd love to stay longer but I really need to get moving." Jumping off the walkway, Kos-Mos pleaded to whoever was listening to watch her Master.  
  
Sumomo looked at Shinji, smiled deeply then jumped into Shinji's cleavage. "Hi Master! Sumomo loves you!" The tiny pink machine then proceeded to climb her way unto Shinji's shoulder. Blowing a whistle and screaming, "Warning, warning you'll be late if you don't hurry!"  
  
The weirdness meter defiantly broken today for Shinji, she just nodded to the little machine and started running. Never once thinking that wearing a white collared t-shirt and no bra would cause a problem.  
  
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Having Sumomo with her wasn't as bad once Shinji got used to it. Sure the tiny thing would dance, sing, yell, and make her do odd things all the time, but it was too cute to stay mad at. Sumomo also played a mean game of chess. The pair just started there third game as Shinji noticed more and more of her classmates looking at her.  
  
The boys of class 2-A were in heaven. Out of no place this new girl showed up and had no qualms of showing her chest to the whole class. Sure she had a shirt on but it did little to hold back her bosom. Shinji's appearance and short walk across the classroom had resulted in no less than eight nosebleeds.  
  
Hikari, being the firm center of authority, and not liking how Touji was forming a small puddle of drool under his desk, opted to talk to the new, unknown, transfer. 'Where is Shinji-kun at a time like this? I need a real man, and what do I get, a hussy and a bunch of drooling dorks.'  
  
Resigning from the game, Shinji admitted defeat and Sumomo danced her happy dance of victory just as Hikari stepped over to them. "I'm sorry but this desk is not open. Could you please move to another?"  
  
Not being accustomed to Hikari's orders, or her stern and unyielding hatred for girls that act way too flashy, Shinji looked at her dumbly. "It's me though. This is my desk." Sumomo added that yes it was Master's desk and to go away. Sumomo was taking Kos-Mos's orders for protection very seriously.  
  
Dismissing the odd toy that was waving banners with big 'X's on them Hikari eyed up the girl. "I don't know who you think you are, but this desk is Ikari, Shinji's." Finishing her tirade Hikari was rewarded by a few of the girls supported her. The girls liked Shinji sitting by them because it gave them something to look at that wasn't school related.  
  
The guys however were not willing to let the girl now known as 'Goddess of Class 2-A' move away from them before they got her phone number. "Class Rep let it go! Shinji can sit someplace else!"  
  
Ami and Matoko didn't agree and voiced that the girl needed to move her 'show off' self someplace else. More and more girls started to voice their opinions as well. The men countered.  
  
The factions started to yell, scream, somebody threw a chair, and then the other side threw one back, and needless to say all war broke out. As a pencil beamed at Shinji's head, a devoted follower of the Goddess dove to intercept. Sumomo reset the board and prompted Shinji to make a move, the persocom oblivious of anything.  
  
All in all a typical morning for the class, all that ended when the teacher arrived and classes started. Shinji, as confused as ever, looked at Rei's empty desk and felt for the updated card in her pocket, 'I'll drop it off after class ends.'  
  
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Ritsuko paced across the small tiled floor in her office. In less than two hours Shion's plane was to land and Gendo requested that she go get the new addition. Kicking one of Maya's 'Hello Kitty' plush toys out of her way, Ritsuko just wanted to cry. 'Washu-sama why did you have to have that breakdown, I need you!'  
  
Plopping back down into her seat, Ritsuko picked up one of the photos on her desk. It was a photo of herself and a very petite red headed child, whose hair looked oddly like a crab. Smiling softly she put the photo down and picked up her clipboard from the previous day. "Shinji made an excellent guinea pig. It's a shame the gender potion didn't work."  
  
A voice boomed from behind the blond doctor's head, and it wasn't happy. "It did work and she is at school now." The sudden twirling sensation then hit the doctor as she was swirling around in her chair to confront a nasty looking Kos-Mos. "I want you to turn him back. Now."  
  
While Ritsuko was scared for her life, the fact that her test was successful overwhelmed her senses. "I knew it would work! I just knew that I was right about the ratios on it!" The doctor patted her soon to be killer's shoulders.  
  
Willing her arm to turn into her seamless and death dealing R-Scythe, Kos- Mos could almost see the dotted line circle the woman's neck. "I don't think you fully grasp the situation here."  
  
Ideas of testing Shinji's new found bodily systems evaporated as Ritsuko noticed how Kos-Mos's eyes started to shift from red to blue. 'Oh yeah Kos- Mos may not like what I did to Shinji.' The doctor gently pushed the blade away from its position adjacent to her neck. "Now Kos-Mos there is a cure for that and I'll give it to her when she gets here tonight. Rei's activation test is tonight so he has to be here. But..."  
  
The anger draining away, much like her fear was Kos-Mos's hand regained its prior form. Walking over to the hole in the wall that she used to enter the office, Kos-Mos turned back to the doctor. "But what?"  
  
'This could work out very well for me,' the doctor schemed. Not only could Kos-Mos be used to get her funding, but it would also give the doctor time she needed to get more tests from Shinji, plus eradicate a potential threat. "I need money to produce the antidote for her."  
  
Using her speech analysis program, Kos-Mos detected a hint of deception in the other woman's voice. "I suggest you get your funds then, and quick. I wish to show my appreciation to Master soon and it's not possible in 'his' current condition.  
  
'You could use an adapter,' Ritsuko thought sickly as she caught onto Kos- Mos's plans. Reaching into her desk, Ritsuko took out an envelope with the words 'Jet Alone' printed on it. "This organization has a lot of money, but I can't get it. With your processor we could easily hack them."  
  
As much as Kos-Mos didn't like the doctor, and by not liking it is meant she wanted to see the skeletal structure the doctor had without using technology, Kos-Mos was intrigued. A challenge was something she didn't mind. And if she could attain a source of funds of her own, Kos-Mos and Shinji could move away from their current dwelling complete with sick old hag.  
  
So as Shinji was being dismissed for lunch, Kos-Mos and Ritsuko were draining the Jet Alone project of vital funds for Ritsuko's personal gain. Kos-Mos took the majority of the funds for her Master, but let Ritsuko think she got the lion's share.  
  
Many days later, a very scared teenage intern was given the task of informing his bosses about the termination of the Jet Alone project due to lack of funds. He was appropriately fired.  
  
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Lunch was not something Shinji had enjoyed at all. Taking her normal seat, she found that Touji and Kensuke walked over to her and sat down. While not having a very pleasant encounter with Touji, Shinji knew that given her current position Touji wasn't going to kill her. 'He doesn't even know who I am.'  
  
Touji already breaking his chopsticks open asked "Mind if we sit with you?" He ended his statement by slurping up some of his meal. The jock's eyes plastered all over the location on Shinji's body just under the neck line.  
  
Kensuke, doing exactly the same as Touji, but hiding his camera between his legs and praying the shot came out clear, added. "We didn't let you introduce yourself in class this morning, we're sorry. The girls take offense to somebody sitting in Shinji's seat."  
  
'Why would they take offense to that,' the oblivious man/woman thought momentarily before waving off any hard feelings. Smiling softly she started eating her own food. Eating her egg roll however seemed to entrance all the males watching her. "Is something wrong?"  
  
A trickle of blood trailing down his nose, Touji's mind was far from reality. "Nothing, nothing at all." The dreamy tone in his voice sent shivers of fear down the back of the young Ikari, why she didn't know.  
  
"You have a name?" Kensuke asked hopefully, as he too tried to keep his mind off the way the new girl was eating. 'Man this is just to cool! It's like she doesn't even know what she's doing!' Part of the two boys felt a little bad for how they were acting but the hormones of a normal teenage boy are often quite compelling.  
  
Having not been your typical hormonally driven boy, Shinji really didn't know that her actions were doing. Blanking on her new false name for a moment, Shinji just ate another sushi roll. "My name is Mayakashi, Gagou." The moment the words slipped out of her lips she cringed. 'I just told them my name is 'fake name' they'll never believe it!'  
  
Being totally focused on her lips, and not on her words, Touji and Kensuke never thought for a moment. "We'll Ga-chan welcome to Tokyo-3!" The smiles on their faces lit up the room. All around the cafeteria, boys frantically wrote the name down for future reverence, many of them writing the soon to be delivered love letter.  
  
With a flash of inspiration, Shinji got an idea. Feeling terrible for using her new form to her advantage, Shinji's self hatred took its toll on her. "You said the girls don't like me sitting in this 'Shinji's' chair. What do you guys think of him?" After speaking, Shinji wanted to impale herself on her chopstick for being so mean and underhanded.  
  
Being ashamed of his previous behavior regarding Shinji, Touji's shoulders slumped. "He's a good kid. I kinda had a run in with him that I regret and I'm trying to find a way to apologize to him." Touji noticed how his words seemed to strike a cord with the vision of loveliness before him and his perverse side kicked in. "Would you mind helping me think of a way?"  
  
Guilt washed over the poor girl. Feeling terrible for tricking Touji, Shinji shook her head and stood up. "I'm sorry but I have to run, see you in class." Running from the table, Shinji was again the focus of every eye. The men watched the unrestrained chest movements, while the girls just looked on with hate and envy.  
  
In the hallway outside the cafeteria something else assaulted Shinji's mind, panic. 'Oh no! I have to go to the bathroom...but I don't know how.' She looked down at herself fearfully. 'I really don't want to have to do this here!'  
  
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"It's been a long time since you greeted us with your presence Shion, welcome back to the geo-front," Kozo said to the speckled woman before him. Gendo had insisted that his trusty Second in command go for the pick-up as Ritsuko was now doing 'something useful for a change.'  
  
Shion was somewhat of a unique thing at Nerv. She was attractive yes, but in a less showy way than the other women. Being more accustomed to being over shadowed by the other ladies, Shion didn't care anymore. She didn't need to ask men for dates, she created Kos-Mos for that. Kos-Mos's primary sub-feature was to find the ideal man for her.  
  
Taking the old man's hand in hers, Shion shook it. "It's nice to see you again Sub-commander. I hear Kos-Mos has finally awoke?" Her golden brown hair swaying in the small breeze, Shion hoped her voice didn't betray her impatience to find her beloved. "Do you know who woke her up?"  
  
Leading Shion to an awaiting limo, Kozo opened the back door. "Yes actually. The Third Child was responsible for getting Kos-Mos to finally start. He'll be in for tests later tonight if you want to see him. Kos-Mos is currently helping Doctor Akagi with something in her lab too."  
  
The word 'Akagi' dampened Shion's hidden bliss. 'That skank is still here? Going to yell at me again for 'stealing Allen' from her?' Putting her old grudge off to the side, Shion turned back to her old friend. "So tell me about this boy, the one that woke Kos-Mos."  
  
Kozo couldn't put his finger on it, but something in Shion's voice spoke differently. 'It's almost like she's here for Shinji and not to help us with Kos-Mos.' Nailing the truth right on the head without knowing it, Kozo informed the good new doctor about the current standings of one Ikari, Shinji.  
  
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Walking up the stairs to Rei's apartment, Shinji just couldn't get his mind off of the post lunch encounter. Well that and she was still hoping to eventually use the bathroom without having her eyes shut, but that wasn't important right now. Upon her return to class, the semi-blind instructor finally noticed that she was a 'new' student, and one that didn't have any paper work.  
  
The teacher asked about this matter and the nervous Shinji handed the man the three photos Misato gave him. The first was a picture of a house with the word 'Don't' on the bottom. The second was a picture of Unit-01 oddly enough and it had the word 'Ask' printed on its bottom with the Nerv Logo attached. The final picture just had a smoking hole with the word 'Questions' on it. While she didn't know what they meant in total, Shinji did see how the man laid the photos down and told her to take a seat.  
  
Shaking off the feeling that she had threatened the aging teacher, Shinji rang Rei's doorbell. She rang it again. Taking a step away from the door, the new found woman nearly tripped on a bundle of unopened mail that had dates going as far back as 2000. 'I guess the old occupants never filled out the change of address form.'  
  
Wading past the sea of junk mail, Shinji offered an apology to Rei as she opened the door and snuck in. Taking her shoes off, Shinji gave a weak, "Hello? Anybody home?" To which the three inches that heard it, said nothing.  
  
Walking further into Rei's den, Shinji spotted the empty box that once contained Misato's manga collection. Ahead of her was a lavish bookshelf now completely filled with the paper texts, all in perfect alignment. 'She really takes her manga seriously.'  
  
Stepping over what looked like a pile of dirty bandages, and a few empty pudding containers, Shinji spotted several empty sake bottles. 'Rei drinks?' She was aware of something else too. "Rei's a little pig." Her eyes darting across the dirt covered room, Shinji debated on asking the girl to move to a better home. Shinji's eyes came to rest on a small beau next to a piece of padding that could have passed for a bed.  
  
"That must be the manga she's reading now," she said aloud to herself as her fingers slipped around the paper novel. "Wonder what it is?" she asked herself as she turned the binding to see the words, never once did she hear the running shower, or the water turn off. "I know this one. It's 'Oh! My Goddess!" Going over what she knew of Rei, Shinji assumed Rei had adapted to Belldandy, she was wrong.  
  
From her position in the bathroom, Rei spotted a strange woman in her room. Using her powers, Rei read the girls mind and came to a very pleasant conclusion. 'It's Shinji.' The symbols on her face blazed for a second then dimmed. Rei smiled brightly as she dropped the towel over her shoulder. 'This will make my trip a lot quicker,' she licked her lips in anticipation before stopping in the doorway. 'Wait he's a she. That complicates things.'  
  
Looking up at the sound of Rei stopping, Shinji's fingers slid through a few pages of the manga. 'Crap! She as in the shower! She saw me with her book she must be really upset with me!' Rei just looked at Shinji, and she just looked back. The moment was frozen in time. Rei was thinking of how to proceed and Shinji praying that Rei didn't kill her.  
  
'Well we can work something out that is mutually beneficial,' Rei thought as she started to saunter over to Shinji. She stomped her foot down with a little extra force per step to give the towel a little extra jump. The full power of Urd's seduction techniques began flowing in Rei's mind.  
  
Shinji saw this as mad stomping and took a step back out of Rei's reach. As Rei clawed out at her, Shinji found herself trying to keep the manga out of her reach, sure that she was aiming for the book. Soon the two, thanks to Shinji's bout of clumsiness, were on the floor. Shinji's hand positioned politely on Rei's left breast. 'SHE'S GOING TO KILL ME!'  
  
'Ah Shinji doesn't need coaching after all. This is most pleasurable.' Rei's mind told her as sensation shot up her body. Grabbing Shinji's hand as the shy girl moved to take it away, she put it back on. "No no no dear, you leave that right there. This is where it all starts."  
  
Finally noticing the crests on Rei's head and cheeks, she made the connection. 'WHY IS SHE URD!' her mind reeled. Not wanting to take advantage of Rei in her current state, believing Rei could never have real feelings for her, Shinji dropped Rei's new card on the floor screamed about it and ran out in disgust, not of Rei but herself for actually liking how Rei felt.  
  
Rei sat up and pouted very cutely. "Silly Shinji, I can read your mind. I'll prove to you my love!" Sitting up Rei walked over to her manga collection and debated.  
  
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Doing her best not to think about the assault she just visited upon Rei, Shinji sat in the Nerv changing room, the male half. Thankfully totally vacant except one man in the shower, Shinji started to prepare for the Unit- 00 reactivation test.  
  
She stopped when she had disrobed down to her underwear and t-shirt. 'I can do this. it's my body right now anyway. I'm not being a pervert or anything.' The logic in her statement was overshadowed by feeling of shame. Sitting on the bench provided for her, she just looked at her plug suit. 'Maybe I should have gone to see Akagi-san first.'  
  
She would have never been able to look at herself again if she had seen Ritsuko first though. The full battery of tests would have shattered Shinji's mind. So she just sat looking at the suit and down at her still covered body. 'This is getting me no where. If I don't hurry Misato-san will get worried.'  
  
Dragging her tiny body out of Shinji's satchel, Sumomo again jumped towards Shinji's chest. As the shirt was unbuttoned this time, the tiny person collided with skin and not fabric this time. "Master hurry! Master hurry! Times almost up!" Sumomo exclaimed as she started to assist her Master in getting ready.  
  
Having a little computer fondle her, then start taking her cloths off, Shinji realized that her life was about as off kilter as it could get. "Thank you Sumomo-san but I can handle it." Taking a large breath, Shinji took off his shirt and boxer shorts, and kept her eyes firmly shut as she groped for her suit.  
  
During her pursuit, Sumomo guided her hands, but neither noticed that they now had a spectator. Gendo had just finished his daily shower and was walking towards his private changing room. 'Well I'll be damned! Kozo must have set something up for me!' The Commander of Nerv thought as he looked at the young, nude, and grasping girl before him. Liking to take command, "What are you waiting for?"  
  
The mere sound of her father's voice caused Shinji's eyes to pop open. Finding the man standing on her right with nothing but a towel around his waist and a smirk, Shinji felt that something was really wrong. So shocked that she couldn't speak, Shinji just looked as Gendo put his hands to his hips with a look of expectation.  
  
Sumomo's eyes hardened and she jumped in front of Shinji in a protective manner. "What you want sick old man!" Grabbing onto her own hand, Sumomo reached into her little bag for an offensive weapon  
  
His eyes diverted from the nubile youth before him to the pink computer, "Are you calling me, Gendo Ikari, a sick old man!"  
  
The tiny head of Sumomo bouncing around like a super ball, "Bing bong bing bong! Correct correct! YEAH!" She finished by starting a tiny lighter up, pulling out a container of gas, and proceeding to light Gendo's towel on fire.  
  
Watching her father run out of the changing room with a flaming towel around his waist, Shinji finally slid into her plug suit. Hearing a few screams of pervert from outside the hall, Shinji pushed the pressurize button. That's when the problem breathing began, and the really painful squeezing in her chest. 'I guess these were anatomically correct.'  
  
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Sitting in the test room, Misato was pacing. "Where the hell is Shinji again? Rei's been in Unit-00 for five minutes now waiting!" While not wanting to show concern, Misato was very worried about Shinji. 'What if some pervert tried something with her! What if she's in a corner right now cowering?' Then other ideas started to pop in her mind, ones where it was Shinji and her...I'm not going into detail.  
  
Thinking of all the new things she was going to buy, Ritsuko just waved off Misato's concern. "If something happened Kos-Mos would be all over it. But as you can tell she's still getting money from the JSDF for us." The good doctor almost slipped and said 'for me' but had just caught herself.  
  
Walking into the room slowly, Shinji painfully climbed into the entry plug for Unit-01. "Sorry for being late...just a few issues with my plug suit." Her words coming out in sharp gasps as the child tried valiantly to keep the air in her body.  
  
"Well I'll be damned. My sex change serum did work!" Ritsuko cried and jumped out of her seat. She just couldn't believe Kos-Mos's words at face value, she had to see the results for herself.  
  
Misato stopped dead in her tracks and looked at Ritsuko. The full hate of the glance the Captain shoved down the Good Doctor's throat would have choked an entire battalion of soldiers. "You mean you did that to Shinji on purpose!"  
  
The next several minutes were a haze of bullet fire, and knock out darts. Ritsuko was luckily able to sedate Misato before a bullet found its mark. 'She takes her job very seriously,' Ritsuko thought as she propped the semi- conscious Misato in a chair, then pried the purple haired woman's hand off of hers.  
  
"Don't worry about it Shinji. I'll have the antidote for you ready by the time you get done with this test," Ritsuko said to the girl via comm. channel. Truth was the antidote was prepared long before the test was even started. Ritsuko just didn't know if it would work, or if the change would have some after affects.  
  
Shinji just nodded and looked over to Rei's video feed. She saw how the glyphs on her face were gone, much like Urd's personality, and wondered what Rei had read after she left.  
  
Shinji didn't get a change to ask Rei before the test was started and Unit- 00 was finally able to be activated without losing its head.  
  
-------------  
  
"Father, do you know what's happening in Japan right now?" a young red- headed girl asked as she ran up to her father's chair.  
  
Putting down his copy of the bible, he turned to face one of his daughters. "No Asuka-chan what is happening?" The smile and warmth of his words lost on his daughter.  
  
"The humans are fighting angels! I'm going up their myself. We can't have angels dying and not support the cause!" Asuka said confidently. It was a demons job to kill angels after all.  
  
Satan shook his head, "Now Asuka-chan why do you want to go do that for. Your sister Grenda has made friends with an angel remember?" Satan if you hadn't guessed it has calmed down a lot over the years. Having started a family he is now very calm and passive.  
  
"She's my step sister! And no I don't want to be the platinum princess either!" Asuka wasn't a big supporter of her sister Grenda's attempt to gain power in one of the lower dimensions of Earth. "Mother even said she supports me on this!"  
  
"Naaga-san always did think you were best suited for combat," Satan did agree. Naaga the White Serpent, being his third wife was always telling Asuka how powerful she was, and to be weary of small breasted mages. "If you really want to go to Earth you have my blessing."  
  
"Thanks father," Asuka said with a smile as she ran her fingers over her tiny red horns. Going to Earth was going to be a blast. She was tired of hell and from what she heard from her spies, one human had killed two angels alone, and she just had to meet that human. 'Maybe he'll be a boy and I can finally get a love life!'  
  
Her plan set, Asuka the princess of hell made the preparations for her journey to Earth. Fear and terror be in store for those foolish to get in her way.  
  
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Author Notes  
  
Yes Asuka is the princess of hell, but no I'm not Asuka bashing! This story is all humor remember? Rei being overly angelic and all, I needed a buffer for that so making Asuka super strong and a lil Hellion is just what the doctor ordered.  
  
Now if I can just think of an outfit that isn't body hugging red leather for her I can get away with not having a lot of hate mail   
  
Again this is all in good fun so don't get worried. When Things do start happening with our fav German I'll do my best to keep her in character.  
  
As for the Shinji Gendo scene...I'm sorry but it just fit Gendo to well.  
  
Remember to vote for your characters!!  
  
Ja Mata  
  
Zentrodie   
  
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Those who side with Rei: Otaku-Dman, Vibious, SoulFire, Macavity the Mystery Cat, Dark Machine, Philg, NickNack, Azurewind, Redmage2k, Rei-aka- Ayanami-chan, jennyjennie, rgreat Total: 12  
  
Those who side with Asuka: Kusinagi, Nova10, Vibious, Final Max, Kuracao, Shikigami, Redshadow64, xXx, Supereva0102, Asuka-fan, SOMEBODY Total: 11  
  
Those who side with Kos-Mos: Xeo, Konos the Grey, Golden Kitsune, ScienceMonkey, Nicknack, DarkChuchuo, Sybian Machine, Final Max, Crrot, Sol bandus, Pandomine Total: 11  
  
Those who side with Mana: Player 0, Steve Vader, Chewy, Rusty Knight Production Total: 4  
  
Zang-sama, Organized Kaos, Trikster sides with Blue haired girls  
  
Those who side with Shion Uzuki: Remenants, Final Max, EchoGarrote Total: 3  
  
Epsilon is debating on who to side with  
  
Those who side with Misato: Kippenberger Total 1 


	7. Unexpected Visitor

Standard disclaimer!

Well as you probably know by now this fic is a hodgepodge of series, ideas, and just plain idiocy. Yet you like it, and I do too.

Surprising turn of events in the battle roster from last chapter, Kos-Mos took the lead. If you haven't figured it out, when I update the list if you have more than one choice I add you to the choice that has the fewer votes. Can't have multiple listings or this would get way out of hand. So pick you all time great and shout it from the roof tops!

Chibi banners are emblazoned all around us people! And if you have a person that hasn't been listed or even spoken have in the story...SAY IT ANYWAY! I can/will add just about everything to this story as it goes along so don't worry.

On a more somber note, my final semester of University begins SOON, so writing will again take a back seat to education. But have no fear I will keep going.

Enjoy

What We Make Of It

Chapter 7 – Unexpected Visitor

Or

Why Many People Hate Yui Ikari

Sitting on the toilet in his apartment, Shinji sulked. Luckily the activation test for Unit-01 had taken place on a Friday, because he had spent the whole weekend hiding in the water closet. 'Why does this always happen to me?' He asked to himself as Sumomo tried to cheer him up by dancing.

Looking down his body and seeing his still long hair, Shinji wondered when his manhood would choose to reform itself. From outside the door, Misato called to him. "Shinji, Ritsuko said the affects of the serum wouldn't be permanent, you just have to wait a little longer." The current events had pissed Misato off as well. With nothing to take photos of, she couldn't update her website, and her subscribers were getting antsy. 'Damn Ritsuko! How do I tell him that the effects of the drug may come back and turn him into a woman at any moment!"

"It's ok Master, Kos-Mos is hunting for the evil doctor lady right now!" Sumomo sang out as she climbed up Shinji's hair and perched herself on his shoulder. Poking at Shinji's cheeks lightly and batting her tambourine, Sumomo was rewarded with Shinji smiling at her.

With her ear pressed to the door, Misato heard the whole dialogue. "Shinji! Do you have that odd pink monstrosity in there with you?" Pangs of raw jealousy seared through the woman's mind. 'Why can't I be the one to comfort him? All these other women after MY Shinji, and now that Uzuki woman is calling. Wait a minute...' Misato's jell-o like mind hit a pothole and sent her into a tale spin.

As Misato's head wobbled around in the despite effort to form a thought, Shinji responded sheepishly. "Yes Misato-san Sumomo is in here with me." His face full of embarrassment, Shinji was glad Misato couldn't see him. He felt like a fugitive or a pervert having the persocom with him, but try as he might he couldn't keep the cute thing away.

Having been with Shinji as the half-man/half-woman locked himself into the bathroom a few days ago, Misato hadn't seen Sumomo with him when he went in. "Shinji how did you get her in there with you?" Ideas started to generate in Misato's mind like fuzz growing on the food she had cooked the night before. 'How would I sneak a six inch cylindrical robot into a room with no handbag or pockets...' Misato's mind being the bastion of purity that it was, came up to the most logical conclusion. "Shinji you better wash that thing off before you touch it!"

Looking at Sumomo in confusion, Shinji had no idea what Misato meant. He had smuggled the computer into room under his shirt so how could she have gotten dirty. "Misato how am I going to go to school like this?"

Using one of the credit cards she had 'borrowed' from Ritsuko, Misato succeeded in picking the lock separating her from Shinji. Walking into the room, Misato's heart went out to the poor boy all the more. 'He looks so lost like this, with his long hair, and pretty face, and...' Her mind would have continued with its downward spiral had Shinji not started sniffling, then outright crying.

So many changes had hit him since his arrival in this city less than a month ago, that his mind snapped. Crying lightly he was aware of Sumomo patting his cheek and trying to comfort him, then he felt Misato's breasts. Smashing Shinji's face to her chest, Misato hugged the boy for dear life. 'I'll make it all better for you Shinji, you just wait.' And she believed every word of it. In the short time of knowing him, her heart fell squarely in his hand, she was his and would help him in all things. "Silly, we just need to cut that extra hair away and all will be well."

Climbing out of the toilet where she landed, Sumomo could see the smile break across Shinji's face. Sending video feed to Kos-Mos, the machine waited for a reply as to whether to allow this to continue. Kos-Mos's reply was, 'as long as she doesn't try to 'touch' him its ok. The moment it goes beyond comforting electrify her.'

Breaking into the most heavily guarded section of Nerv wasn't a simple task, but Ritsuko had plenty of time right now. Doing all she could to avoid Shion and her infernal creation, Ritsuko decided to finally talk to her mentor and advisor. Sadly that person was incarcerated for being the greatest mad genius in recorded history. The two of them got along great.

Passing by the third electrified doubly enforced steel doors Ritsuko had finally reached her target objective, Washu's lab. Having not seen from the diminutive genius for four years, Ritsuko didn't really know how her intrusion would be received. Tentatively, "Washu-chan, are you here?" the more intelligent part of Ritsuko's mind added 'and alive.'

With a voice that seemed too large and grandiose for the small frame, Washu bellowed from her hover seat far above Ritsuko's head. "Of course I'm here! Where else would I be? This is my laboratory you know." Jumping off her perch the eternal child did a back flip and landed right in front of the startled fake blond. "Why Ritsuko it's been a little while since I last saw you. Still pining for Allen?"

Having never gotten over her crush for the dorky Allen, and the subsequent rebound that landed her in Gendo's bed, Ritsuko sighed heavily. "I had to get away from Shion and that damn windup toy of hers. Its awake now."

"So Shion's ideal man is here to then," Washu added with a small laugh. Having company after her breakdown was a rare treat, and quite illegal. Noticing Ritsuko's look of pure shock, Washu realized that Shion hadn't really told anybody about Kos-Mos's purpose. "You did know that Shion altered that girl to act as a locator for her perfect mate right?"

Shaking her head in shame, Ritsuko didn't know what to feel about that. 'Shinji woke her up does that mean...' Now following Washu around her lab, Ritsuko spotted devises and experiments of the most unusual kind. "Washu-chan you've been busy down here haven't you."

"Can't keep the greatest scientist in the universe down!" Washu shouted and expanded on her statement by pulling fans out of mid-air and doing the fan dance. The Washu-O's popping out of her shoulder to add to the encouragement. "Want to see my latest experiment or did you want to tell me more about Shion's husband to be?"

Captivated by the thought of seeing one of Washu's experiments again, Ritsuko the only surviving apprentice to Miss Hakubi nodded and followed. Trailing the long red tresses and the tails of Washu's black jacket Ritsuko could hardly believe she'd been living without this. "What did you make this time?"

Gesturing to the form of what looked like a sleeping girl, Ritsuko could easily spot a few oddities about Washu's creation. It had a tan complexion, white hair, a blue triangle on its cheek, long brownish ears, and fingernails that looked like claws. "What is that thing?"

Giving Ritsuko her patented evil genius grin, Washu laughed. "I call 'her' Aisha Clan-Clan and she is a Ctarl Ctarl. I mixed human DNA with a wild cat and added a touch of pepto-bismo. She can turn into a giant cat during full moons and is practically immortal!" The lover of crabs delightfully said, her own creation filling her full of pride. "Isn't she the cutest lil piece of terror?"

"Why is she sleeping?" Ritsuko asked as she wondered why Washu didn't want to have the company. A feeling of creeping dread welling in her body, much as it always did when Washu showed her something.

Stopping for a moment, Washu checked her watch and smiled deeply again. "Why Ritsuko it's a wedding gift for the one member of my extended family that you didn't send into that dimensional rift." The look in Washu's eyes would have sent shivers down Gendo's back, but Ritsuko was expecting it.

Taking a step back and finding that a chair had materialized behind her, further reminding her that playing with Washu was the equivalent of disarming a nuclear bomb with your eyes closed. "I told you I was sorry about that!" Ritsuko said in defiance. "I got the sample from that Tenchi guy, but that flying girl charged and I got scared and shot them with your rift generator."

"That girl was my daughter you know," Washu said quietly as she took her own invisible chair next to Aisha. Pulling the sheet up and over the white body army the sleeping beast wore, "But I'm sure they're happy. Being stuck in a confined space together with as all the food they could ever need. I'm sure Tenchi, Ayeka, Mihoshi, and Ryoko are very very happy. Well that is if Tenchi ever got over that little fear of intimacy he had."

As the restraints that had appeared around her wrists started to tighten, Ritsuko noticed an odd gleam in Washu's eyes. 'Shit she wants a guinea pig again!' Pushing back deeper into the air that suspended her. In a surge of panic Ritsuko groped out for something to hold off the doctor. "So what was that about Aisha being a wedding present?"

Being caught off guard by the question, Washu reclined back into her chair. "Ah I arranged a wedding for Sasami and a co-worker of mine's son. She was a real peach of a girl that one, you may know her. Her name was Yui Ikari."

"You knew Yui Ikari?" Ritsuko asked dumbfounded. 'But that would mean Shinji, unless Gendo had another kid that we didn't know about.' And knowing how Gendo liked to sleep around it wouldn't have surprised her. "Wait how is that possible. I remember you telling me about Sasami, she was fourteen nine years ago, how can she be in an arranged marriage?"

Clicking her tongue Washu chastised her pupil. "You're not thinking forth dimensionally. Sasami had to go someplace and was put under suspended animation for the trip. Then took two years of bridal training and back in suspended animation for the trip back." Washu was still under planetary charter not to divulge the existence of Jurai to under developed planets.

"So she'd be sixteen then?" Ritsuko knew better than to question Washu on such matters of technological fancy. 'She'd just prove it existed and make me look like a child anyway.' But another question popped into the blond's head. "You said Ryoko was your child, how could you have pulled getting this other girl into an arranged marriage?"

"I promised her parents that I'd stop making instruments of total destruction for fun and profit," Washu said with a bit of regret. She didn't want to stop making them, but for the potential of the marriage she'd do it. 'He he he, that boy of Yui's DNA is the most powerful thing this side of myself. Add Tsunami's power and I'll have an army of super humans to help 'grandma Washu.'

Unknown to the mad scientist, she had started to cackle madly. "Washu-chan what is so funny?" A new fear started to dwell within Ritsuko, and she didn't like this one. "When is this Sasami supposed to arrive?"

Her watch starting to beep, Washu's laugh was broken. "Just about now actually. And what is so funny is how I get my puppets to dance! If you knew what I do about Yui's boy and his DNA you'd be laughing too!"

Not knowing, and not wanting to now, Ritsuko just snuck back out of Washu's lab and back up the ninety floors back up to the Geo-Front. Kos-Mos and Shion didn't seem so bad in comparison to Washu right now.

Washu didn't care that Ritsuko left. She had to get the serum that would give Sasami's mate the life span of a Jurian. 'Can't have him dying off before I get my army of Goddess infused super men at my beck and call!'

Sitting in her reopened laboratory, Shion gave Kos-Mos a sidelong glance. Something didn't seem to add up about Kos-Mos's actions to Shion. 'She was supposed to wake up and then contact me with all the information about the one who woke her.' But that hadn't happened. No, she got a call from Maya Ibuki, the odd little genius that had the fetish for Hello Kitty and a thing for the 'old skank.'

"Kos-Mos what can you tell me about the one that woke you up?" Shion asked in a very motherly tone, affection being apparent but not the full backing of the words. Shion was gauging Kos-Mos on many levels.

Being face to face with her creator, Kos-Mos should have felt love, respect, and a slew of other positive emotions, she didn't. "Why do I have to answer to you? Master is with that old woman right now. At any moment she could try to force herself on him." A nervous tick started to form on Kos-Mos's forehead.

Nodding to what Kos-Mos said, but not really understanding it, Shion continued. "I'll let you go as soon as you answer my questions. Is that ok with you?"

Shion's soft yet determined voice sank deeply into Kos-Mos's subconscious. 'This woman maybe what I need to liberate Shinji-sama from the infernal clutches of Katsuragi!' Relaxing a fraction, Kos-Mos saw Shion in a new light. "I believe that would be satisfactory if you agree to something for me."

Bartering with her creation for information about her perfect man hadn't been in Shion's plans. Running her fingers through her hair, Shion contemplated the proposal. "What do you want to ask for?"

Feeling her face warm up a few degrees Kos-Mos hoped her systems wouldn't be affected by her emotional state. "The one who woke me, Shinji-sama. I'd like for him to not be living with Captain Katsuragi. If you could change that I'll answer all your questions."

Killing two birds with one stone was more than Shion could have hoped for. "I'm sure I can fix things up for you Kos-Mos. I'll get permission to watch the Third Child myself and you can be free of that woman."

Seeing Shion's lack of Misato's external beauty, Kos-Mos had no qualms about Shinji seeing her. 'He'll find me more attractive if Shion were to make a move anyway so...' Offering her hand to Shion, the two smiled at each other as the plotted to undermine the other. "I would like that greatly Shion."

Retracting her hand from the gloved body of Kos-Mos, Shion spilled her coffee mug. Dousing the potential human in the hot beverage, Shion bulked, "I'm sorry Kos-Mos! I'm a bit of a klutz these days." That was true, her mind lied on the one photo of Shinji she had gotten and the idea that her search was at an end.

Looking at the blackish/brownish sludge that had dropped in her lap, Kos-Mos gazed at Shion. "My external appearance is down five percent. Shion I need to be cleaned." Kos-Mos wouldn't be anything but immaculate for her master when she saw him to tell him the good news.

The exact moment that Washu's watch started to beep, there was a breach in Nerv's security. That breach went unreported however. Civilians were to be politely yet forcefully executed on sight by any guard that saw them pass the entry points without a pass.

For the sixteen-year-old girl with twin light blue pigtails, the guards opened all the doors for her and offered her a pleasant smile. 'Such nice people these Nerv guards are, wonder what they do here and why they have those guns.' Sasami thought as she strolled down the large metal passage way.

Having spent the majority of the last fourteen years in a freeze, and the rest being taught how to be a respectable bride, Sasami was scared. What would her fiancé be like, would he like her, was she good enough for him, and what ever happened to Tenchi and Ayeka. She would have kept asking herself questions had it not been for Makoto stopping her.

Basking in the pure beauty and elegance the teenager had, Makoto could have sworn he saw her in one of his manga someplace. "Miss is their anything I can help you with? You look lost."

Raising her balled hand to her face in embracement, Sasami looked at the floor. "I'm looking for," pulling out the old letter Washu had given her right before the sedative kicked in, Sasami read the name of her future husband, "Ikari-san."

'She's looking for Gendo? Wonder why.' Not questioning the organization that hired him like a good peon shouldn't, Makoto lead the pink eyed girl to the commanders office. Talking to her was the most pleasant experience that he could remember. 'She's such a cute kid! If I were younger I'd...be rejected just like I am with Misato.'

Catching the droop in her tour guides continence, Sasami patted his back. "Whatever it is, it'll get better. You just have to have hope." That's what she believed. After being told that Ayeka was gone to a different dimension and that she was the new heir to the thrown, and that thanks to some string pulling by Washu her husband would be the ruler of the Universe in time, Sasami had her fair share of doubts and worries.

Feeling better at the girl's words, Makoto smiled. "You're right Sasami-kun. This is Commander Ikari's office go right on in. I'm sure he's expecting you." Why wouldn't he be? A girl like that only came around one in a long while.

Walking into the intimidating office, Sasami noticed the odd inscriptions on the floor and ceiling. 'Ew...he doesn't have good taste in decorating.' Sasami put on negative check point on her internal score card. "Hello, is anybody here?" she squeaked out into the large office, sure enough the echo reached Gendo's ears.

Seated at his desk with his eyes closed and a bag of ice between his legs, Gendo had insisted on having no visitors. "Who the hell is bothering me? If it's not important expect a bullet in your head." Gendo was having a bad day, and the pain from his burns wasn't helping.

Shrinking back in fear, Sasami wondered if she could run back to her ship and forget the whole thing. 'I don't want to marry somebody that talks like that. Why couldn't I meet a nice guy like Tenchi?' But her obligations as a princess overtook her feelings of personal matters and she approached the desk. "I am Sasami Jurai."

"And I don't care," Gendo said as his hands slowly reached for the button for his trap door. Sure she was a cute kid but Gendo didn't have a taste for women after the last incident. "State your business."

"Ikari-san," Sasami said near tears, "I was sent here to be your wife. As was arranged." The words felt vile and foul in her mouth. Stepping closer to the man, she could tell that she wasn't attracted to him physically or mentally. 'But I am a princess and I have to do what is best for Jurai.' Sasami loved Washu dearly, but the girl also knew that Washu's devices needed to be stopped and if it meant her happiness so be it.

The pain in his crotch suddenly intensified as his more dirty impulses kicked in. "Arranged marriage, what is this nonsense! Speak clearly."

Sliding the certificate of marriage over the desk, Sasami could almost feel the doors of happiness closing in her face. 'Why had Washu picked such an old and cruel man for me?'

Taking the letter and reading it carefully, Gendo came to a stark revelation. "Damn it Yui! I already pawned the boy off to several different company owners as a husband! Now what do I do!"

'Did he just say the boy?' Hope enveloped the young princess of Jurai like a beam of sunlight. "You are not Shinji Ikari?"

Insuring that the signature was in fact his wife's, Gendo wanted to cry. It was hers alright so now he had to hide the fact from all those that gave him money in exchange for his son's hand in matrimony. "Shinji is my son, and he is currently living with my head of tactical maneuvers." Gendo's hand grabbed for his aspirin and popped two in his mouth. Opening his eyes he found his office empty again, "where the hell she go?"

Shinji sat comfortably in his school desk. During the coarse of the night he had truly became a 'he' again and with his haircut, things would most likely be back to normal. Save for the shrine in the back of the classroom with his picture as a woman and the sign that said 'Ga-Chan Goddess of 2-A' over it.

'Misato wasn't so grabby last night, but I wonder where Kos-Mos went?' Try as he might, Shinji couldn't get Sumomo to confirm Kos-Mos's location. As he put the Sumomo into screensaver mode, Touji and Kensuke approached him.

Bowing deeply to the meek boy, Touji all but shouted, "Shinji I'm sorry for what I did to you! Please forgive me!" The small amount of disappointment that it was Shinji and not Ga-chan was quickly forgotten. Kensuke smiled and nudged Shinji in the side.

"Don't worry about him. He meant well. I'm Kensuke!" Shacking Shinji's hand Kensuke took a liking to the boy. 'Yeah we can be friends.'

Nodding to Kensuke and telling Touji that he had forgiven him a long time ago, the two boys took seating positions flanking Shinji. "You really missed a good show on Friday man. This girl was here and man! She as like an exhibitionist!"

Embarrassed at Touji's unique flair for stupidity, Shinji lowered his face as he noticed a few of the girls looking at him oddly. Spotting the cos-playing girls exchanging a few words among themselves, Shinji made a point to talk to them when given the chance. "What do you mean Touji?"

Being more able to recount the events clearly, Kensuke filled Shinji in to the previous events, much to the boy turned girl and back's horror. Shinji had no idea that he had seemed so perverted to them. 'If I turn into a girl again I don't know what I'll do.' Spotting the clock and realizing he still had some time, Shinji pointed to Ami and Usagi as they gaped at a computer monitor. Misato had finally updated her site, much to their joy.

"Who are those girls over there?" Shinji said to the fantasizing duo. He really didn't want to see Kensuke's video feed from lunch, oddly enough Shinji didn't remember a camera but it wasn't important.

Stopping two seconds from a nosebleed, Touji looked at the direction Shinji pointed. "That my new friend is called 'out of your league.' Those girls are a click of the prettiest girls in school and if they even talk to you I'd be surprised."

Kensuke nodded sadly. "You maybe a pilot but those girls. Those magnificent specimens of beauty wouldn't favor you, or us for that matter, with water to put our selves out with if we were on fire."

Having not only talked to them, but also almost enslaved by them, Shinji looked at them again. "Really?" They seemed to nice to him before, 'maybe they were just acting in character.'

Unable to resist the urge for a good joke, Touji turned to Kensuke and pointed at the girls and back at Shinji. Kensuke understood the concept. They just had to see Shinji try. "Maybe we're wrong though. Why not go talk to them?"

Being the pillar of self-hate and gullibility that he was. Shinji agreed to it knowing something bad was most likely to happen. 'It'll be my penance for deceiving them before.'

Watching from their seats, Touji and Kensuke about had a fit when Shinji not only walked over to talk to them but was actually received by them. Touji's eyes boggled when Usagi draped her arm around Shinji's shoulder and Ami his waist trying to 'help him sit.'

Kensuke wanted desperately to be Shinji when Rei Hino walked over and handed the boy a bag of cookies. Turning to his buddy, Kensuke could say only one thing. "Being his friend is going to have a lot of perks."

Touji just nodded then shouted as right before the manhandling of Shinji by the sailor scouts could continue, Ayanami appeared from behind the boy wearing a powder blue cloak and dragged him off to parts unknown.

If asked later, Shinji would say that he should have never reminded those girls that he saw them in their cos-play outfits. It appeared to him, that the girls were shocked that her could remember them, almost as if they didn't expect him to be able to tell it was them. He grew more afraid of them as the fifth of their group approached and they encircled him.

That was when Rei grabbed him and drug him off to a utility closet. Seeing her in a blue cape like outfit seemed odd. Then when he saw the glasses, those big round glasses, on her face a question materialized in his mind, 'what did she read last?'

Rei's voice was light and slightly perky but with a hint of accusation to it. "Shinji were you flirting with those girls?"

Finding his back against a wall, he just prayed he wasn't guessing the right book. "No I was just asking them what they were cos-playing as."

Taking a few steps closer to him, Rei could smell his scent. 'He still thinks I don't have feelings for him. My precious little Shinji.' It had taken her a good three hours to make the necessary alterations to her plug suit and she was itching for an excuse. "Are you sure? They seemed to have been quite smitten with you."

Attributing his own image of himself to how others see him, Shinji couldn't believe that for a moment. "They were just trying to be nice," seeing Rei getting close Shinji felt MORE of the back against his back, "Um Rei I didn't know you wore glasses."

Her fingers lifting up to the golden rims, a sinister smile appeared on her face, "Shall I take them off then?" She was just about ready now.

Something odd clicked in his mind and he knew he didn't want her to take them off, "Rei, what did you read last?"

"Why 'Sorcerer Hunters' was the last thing I read," Rei informed him as she took the glasses off her face and flung the cape off her back reviling a, depending on your tastes, either a breath taking or horrifying sight. Rei's new outfit was her plug suit, but with no leg or arm attachments and the middle was cut in half in the parody of a rather daring piece of lingerie. "And I believe," reaching for her whip, "You need to be informed of a few things."

That was when Shinji blanked out.

"You need to repaint the whole thing. It has to be red." Asuka informed her slaves, also known as Nerv Germany.

The commanding officer of said branch just looked at what looked like a fourteen year old girl, but based on what she was wearing couldn't be. Asuka stood before them wearing what looked like a two piece swimming suit and a cape and cowl. The back of the cape was dark as night and the inside was red as blood. Her internal outfit however was made of living flame itself.

The flame danced about her body concealing her modesty with extreme heat and pain for those that dared close in to them. She had arrived in Germany from a smoking hole from the earth, and did much to unease the whole base.

"But Asuka-sama, we had orders to have it be black," the cowering officer said as he shuffled around Asuka. They liked the girl when she was happy, but when she was upset, those flames had a way of expanding.

"But black isn't a good color for me, you'll paint it red with orange highlights right?" she asked in a manner that informed them that it wasn't really a question. Asuka bearing her tiny little fangs and her horns shining in the pale light.

Standing up straight the man nodded, "Of course Asuka-sama, as you would have it." A knock on the door diverted attention from Asuka to the charred remnants that had one time been a divider.

A young female technician approached Asuka with a bowed head. "As you asked I have gotten them for you."

Asuka's eyes widening and a smile of pure bliss spread across her face, "Excellent. Give them to me." Taking the girls offering in her hands, Asuka was beyond happy. Her now not so secret obsession fully divulged Asuka hugged her new plush toy lovingly to her chest. "Yes, Earth is a great place. Now, get me more plushies!"

Author notes

Yeah that was Sasami from Tenchi Muyo for those who didn't know. And Asuka has a fetish for plush toys. Rei is Tira from Bakuratsu Hunters. Oh and um did I mention not to expect a lot of sense from this story Well hope you liked it and will comment on it.

If you have anything you'd like to see me add to it, a character, a plot point, pie, just email me the suggestion at zentrodie-at sign-secondimpact-dot-com

Well till later

Ja Mata

Zentrodie

Omake!

The battle lines are fierce!

Those who side with Kos-Mos: Xeo, Konos the Grey, Golden Kitsune, ScienceMonkey, Nicknack, DarkChuchuo, Sybian Machine, Final Max, Crrot, Sol bandus, Pandomine, Vaurnut, NickNack, Soulless, Sleepy Kitty, Deus, GoldmonX Total: 17

Those who side with Rei: Otaku-Dman, Vibious, SoulFire, Macavity the Mystery Cat, Dark Machine, Philg, NickNack, Azurewind, Redmage2k, Rei-aka-Ayanami-chan, jennyjennie, rgreat, Katfum, Oni-Otaku, wiseman Total: 15  
  
Those who side with Asuka: Kusinagi, Nova10, Vibious, Final Max, Kuracao, Razial the Damned, Redshadow64, xXx, Supereva0102, Asuka-fan, SOMEBODY, Supereva01, Knighsshadow, WarpWizard, Dude Total: 15  
  
Those who side with Mana: Player 0, Steve Vader, Chewy, Rusty Knight Production Total: 4

Those who side with Shion Uzuki: Remenants, Final Max, EchoGarrote, Golden Kitsune Total: 4  
  
Zang-sama, Organized Kaos, Trikster sides with Blue haired girls  
  
Epsilon is debating on who to side with

Those who side with Misato: Kippenberger, JVR Total 2

Those Siding with Hikari: Amathyst Wind Total 1

Those wanting a Harem: deinku Total 1  



	8. Continued Battle

Standard Disclaimer

Well good news and bad news people. Good news is school is progressing easily and quickly. Bad news is my main pc 'Nekobox' is having some serious problems. The word processors are all on the fritz and I'm scrambling for a installation cd to reinstall at least one of them. Along with that problem lies why I'm writing a WW today and not continuing my Mst of Children of an Elder God (my current project) as I need to find a way of salvaging the file.

Oh well I'll keep up on it and you can enjoy this while I work. You might have also noticed how has but the kibosh on the traditional segment separators so I'll be trying something else today.

Well enjoy

What We Make Of It

Chapter 8 – Continuing Battle

Or

Why Maya isn't allowed to make many choices

Kos-Mos was dubious to say the least. Having stayed with Shion for the last three days as they contemplated their next move, the android was far from happy. 'Sumomo doesn't seem up to the task of keeping watch over Shinji-sama. She is far too impressionable. Maybe another that can't lie?'

Shion for her part was confident she was close to a breakthrough. The human/android pair hadn't left her lab since they agreed to get Shinji out of Misato's apartment, and into hers. "We just have to give the Commander enough evidence that Shinji isn't safe with Katsuragi. Surely the Commander wants what is best for his son."

Had Kos-Mos not been obsessively viewing Sumomo's data feed she'd have laughed in her makers face. The blue haired machine knew that Gendo would rather do his taxes with a broken calculator and a knife in his hand than worry about his son's safety. "Shion I fail so see how this is of any help in solving our problem."

'No it's not solving the problem, but I can get answers from Shinji myself if I need Kos-Mos,' Shion thought darkly as she viewed her creation. Kos-Mos had served her purpose and now Shion didn't really see the need to coddle her. An idea flashed into Shion's mind and she almost laughed at how easily it solved most of 'her' problems. "I just need to talk to Shinji, that's all."

Disconnecting from Sumomo, Kos-Mos turned to her maker with a clearly distrusting look on her face. "You need to talk to him?" As the words left her lips Kos-Mos started running simulations on how to kill Shion and get away with it. "How will that solve our problem?"

Fumbling with her words for a second, Shion walked over to her desk and sat by her computer. Taking a much time to formulate an answer that would fool the logic engine she installed into her creation, Shion momentarily cursed herself for making it so complex. "Well we need to have some proof that he'll be better off someplace else and not with her. So what better source that the person himself?"

Her processor working in overdrive to scan Shion's words for deception but finding none, Kos-Mos nodded. "I do see the relevance of such a course of action. Now when we do liberate him from his confines...what will we do about the others?"

"Others, what others?" Shion asked as she turned her computer on to scan Shinji's work schedule for the best time to grab him for questioning. That was when Kos-Mos informed the lovely young scientist of the current state of affairs concerning Shinji. When the dialogue ended Shion had much to think about.

Watching the teacher write equations on the board, Shinji was terrible aware of one thing. He didn't understand a word of it. 'How am I supposed to work and keep up with my studies at the same time?' The boy thought as he all but cried in frustration. He was slowly getting accustomed to life in this city, well aside from the majority of it honestly he was getting accustomed to being Misato's slave.

After waking up in the utility closet a few hours ago and finding an odd bruise on his chest, Shinji didn't want to ask about it. Touji informed him when he returned that Rei apparently received a call and left. So left to his own devices, Shinji just played with Sumomo and watched his classmates.

'Maybe I could get a tutor or something,' he thought mildly before squashing the idea. If he put his problems onto somebody else, he'd be even worse than he was before. 'I just have to suffer through it I guess.' Smiling lightly at the dancing girl on his desk, Shinji's eyes drifted across the classroom. Finding another blue haired girl, Shinji remembered her name was Ami, 'she isn't paying attention either...'

With nothing else to do, Shinji would have tried opening an instant message session with the other slacker, but he reasoned she'd rather have bamboo shoots slammed in her fingernails than talk to him. Ami however noticed him as well and did just what he had thought of.

Shinji's eyes widened in surprise when the text box appeared on his screen. "Shinji-san, shouldn't you be paying attention to the lessons?" After reading the message the boy couldn't help but wonder why she had asked that while she was doing the same.

His tentatively wrote his reply and hoped to not appear too foolish. "Um I don't understand it to well, I've missed so much school that I'm far behind. Anyway shouldn't you be doing the same?" He felt his cheeks flush as he sent the message off. His embarrassment increased as he saw Ami cover her mouth and laugh lightly into it. 'I must have said something really stupid.'

'This is perfect!' Ami thought as she read the message from the target. The other soldiers, and even the outers, had wanted to gain some leverage in working with Shinji. And Ami, now that the Star Lights were gone, really wanted a man in her life needed some way of getting close to him. Now they had it, she sent her reply back laden with hope. "Shinji-san I'm part of a study group that works out of the Hikawa Shrine, you're more than welcome to join us."

'A study group that could really help me.' Shinji was really tempted to say yes outright but again he had the self-esteem of a rock and didn't want to inconvenience anybody. Sending his reply, Shinji felt saddened by his inability to simply accept Ami's help. "I'm sorry Ami-san, I'm sure there are too many people there already. I wouldn't want to be a burden."

Touji, waking from his pre-lunch nap and getting ready for his post-nap slumber, was caught off guard as he watched the girl to his left, Ami, firing away messages on her computer. 'That girl doesn't do anything but study, who can she be talking to?' Opening a message screen of his own, Touji asked Kensuke who was trying to hack into Nerv in an attempt to get himself killed, to track the communication.

Ami couldn't believe the words as she read them. 'He just seems to nice! He's perfect!' Fingers dancing across her keyboard, Ami wouldn't take no for an answer, not now. "It's ok Shinji-san. There are only five of us and I can easily tend to your needs. Please say you'll come?"

Having entered the conversation late, Kensuke chose a bad time to join in and was quick to jump to conclusions. His mind coming to the most logical conclusion for a slightly perverted fourteen year old, Kensuke's nose bleed on his keyboard as he told Touji of the conversation.

He couldn't help it but smile. All his life Shinji wanted nothing other than to be accepted. Now being admitted to a study group wasn't the same thing, but it still did a lot to make him happy. And if any woman that was currently subscribed to Misato's website, currently twelve thousand, knew about that fact, Shinji would be very accepted. Sending Ami his response, "If I won't be to much trouble for you than I'll be glad to join your group. Could you send me the details?" Shinji waited for the reply.

Ami gladly did just that, and then she filled her friends in on the newest member of the study group. Then the plans for his welcoming party began.

"Ritsuko just what the hell are you doing?" Misato asked for the forth time as she watch Ritsuko pace across the bridge, stop scream, and start walking again. The purple haired captain's mind was swirling with ideas and concepts, and Ritsuko's screaming wasn't really helping her to keep her concentration.

'Shinji seemed to open up to me a little last night,' Misato pondered as Ritsuko turned and started walking over to her. 'He was so sad last night I couldn't take it anymore. All I did though was...was be myself and he was happy.' A warm sensation spread through Misato as the realization that she only need be herself and Shinji would respond.

"Why the hell are you so happy Misato? Did you forget Shion is here and plotting our destruction!" Ritsuko yelled at her friend as she got within yelling distance. After her talk with Washu, Ritsuko wasn't in the most calm of mind sets. Frankly Washu's little talk about Shion's creation did much to reinstate many of Ritsuko's fears of Shion. "She could be setting that machine of hers to kill us at any moment!"

In typical Misato fashion, she either didn't hear or acted like she didn't hear the ranting of her friend. No her mind was solely wrapped in the notion that when she got home, things would be a little different. "Rits-chan you really need to get that twist out of your panties and calm down or you'll never find a man."

Pouring herself a cup of coffee and taking a seat at her terminal next to Maya's, the blond pushed the teen magazines off the console and turned to Misato. "Oh I don't know. I could always make a robot to find one for me like SHE did." Taking a sip of the coffee, Ritsuko could tell that Motoko made it as the hemp taste was very clear.

"Yeah sure Rits, she made a robot...to find her...perfect man?" Misato's mind came to a screeching halt. 'Wait Kos-Mos woke up because of Shinji, does that mean!!' Misato's vision turned red at that moment. Fear and rage twirled in Misato's mind. 'That bitch! She's here for Shinji not for Kos-Mos!'

"We have to get rid of her Misato! They'll replace with her if they find out about my experiments!" Ritsuko's voice was full of genuine fear. She liked her job, Shinji made a great test subject, and if luck permitting a better man for her than Gendo so she didn't want to lose her job. "What can we do?"

Misato scanned the bridge for potential information leaks, finding none, she scooted closer to her friend now partner. "We find a way of getting rid of her like you said. I won't have Shi...you getting replaced by her." The fire in Misato's soul had ignited and now she fully intended to battle any and all comers for Shinji's affection.

"Lunch time is the best time of the day," Touji announced to his two buddies as they gathered around Shinji's bento by a nearby tree on the quad.

Nodding to Touji, Shinji doubted the jock honestly believed otherwise. Under the impression that he owed the two boys a debt for having lied to them before, Shinji opted to cook lunch for the two. Preparing a plate of food for each, "It's very nice outside today, not a cloud in the sky."

Tasting Shinji's first offering, Kensuke happily assaulted the plate. "Agreed. But Shin-man what were you doing talking to Muzino-san of all people during class?" Kensuke rationalized, after he recovered from his own believes, that Shinji must have done something to provoke such an encounter.

Slightly embarrassed for having been caught in the act of annoying people, something he believed he did on an hourly basis, Shinji confessed. "She saw me not paying attention during class and I admitted to be having troubles keeping up with all of it."

Touji, with half his plate already in his mouth, tried to speak but choked. After a few minutes of back pounding and water drinking the jock tried again. "Are you saying 'she' started talking to 'you' I find that hard to believe?"

Shinji did as well, but facts are facts. "She offered to let me join her study group out of Hikawa Shrine. But I'm sure she didn't mean it." Shinji slid his portion of lunch over to Touji who had been eying it ever since he ate his own.

Finishing his own portion, Kensuke laughed aloud. "Yeah I bet she just took pity on ya. If she meant for you to join her and those other lovely ladies for late nights in an isolated room for hours on end..." Kensuke had to stop talking at that point as his head became very light and thoughts were confusing for him.

Touji took over as he shoved Shinji's meal down this gullet. "If she meant it girls will start falling from the sky." Touji then let out a hearty laugh. Shinji had an odd way with women, well Rei to their knowledge, but that incident with 'those' girls earlier that day had to be a fluke.

But as Touji's laugh started to echo around the quad and Shinji started gathering the plates to take home and clean, a girl did fall from the sky. Sasami, on her way back from her ship hit wave in subspace and was rocked out of her teleportion, fell from a spot about two stories above the trio. "WHAT'S HAPPENING?" the frightened princess yelped as she plummeted downward.

Hearing the cowering scream from above, Shinji's body reacted before his mind could. Rushing the few yards to where the girl would hit, Shinji dove underneath the falling girl and provided a suitable cushion. His back however didn't quite enjoy the action, "Ow."

Touji and Kensuke looked at each other, then at the girl, then Shinji, and then each other again. Looking skyward Touji tried again, "If they meant it it'd start raining yen from the sky!" Finding the sky oddly money free, Kensuke just shook his head and rushed over to their prone buddy.

"Are you ok miss?" Kensuke asked the vision of loveliness before him. 'Those cute blue pigtails, those pink eyes, and look at...' His eyes wafted downward at Sasami's chest, but finding a very formal kimono blocking any view, and that the girl was watching him with a scowl on her face meaning she knew where and what he was thinking stopped his thoughts.

'He's not very polite is he?' Sasami thought as she looked at the boy. But she was relieved from her believed height her fall should have hurt a lot more. "I'm fine thank you. The ground here must be very soft because that fall didn't hurt at all." She smiled softly at the boy and his friend as he approached them.

They wanted to tell the girl that she was saved from the brunt of the fall by Shinji's act of selfless stupidity, but couldn't. The smile on the girl's face was so radiant that rational thought drained away from the two. 'Kawaii!' was the dual thought they had. Kensuke felt mildly ashamed of himself for thinking his previous thoughts regarding the woman. 'She seems too pure for such thoughts.'

"Could either of you two please tell me where I am?" Sasami asked as she tried to control her breathing. Still fairly rattled from her fall, she'd yet to realize what she had landed on.

Touji, finally snapping out of his cuteness induced coma, replied "Tokyo-3 junior high, and you fell on our buddy."

Looking down and seeing that she did in fact did fall on a person Sasami's heart skipped a beat as she jumped off the body and bowed down. "I'm so sorry I didn't mean to fall on you like that!" She felt mortified at her own actions she could have seriously hurt the boy she fell on. 'How could I have done such a thing?'

The pain finally subsiding, Shinji rolled over onto his back and sat up. His vision a little blurred Shinji shook his head in attempt to clear it out a bit. "It's ok. It was an accident."

Helping Shinji to his feat, Kensuke just marveled at how easily Shinji let the fall slide. "Dude, if you didn't act as a human air bag, she'd have broken a leg or something," turning to Sasami, "Did you get knocked out of a window or something?"

Before Sasami had a chance to respond Shinji muttered, "I just didn't want her to get hurt, it wasn't that big a deal." He tried dusting off his shirt, but his white shirt had become good friends with the dirt it had just met and didn't want to call off the relationship yet.

Sasami didn't know what to think. 'He jumped under me to save me from harm and doesn't even want recognition for it? He doesn't even seem to want a 'thank you' or apology.' Standing up to properly address her savior and his friends, "I just kinda fell that is all."

Looking at each other, Sasami's response did nothing to clarify what had just transpired. "You fell. From where?" Touji not really caring about the semantics of the encounter added one more question, "What's your name?"

'How do I tell them I fell from hyperspace?' taking a step backwards Sasami was growing afraid. "Well you see about that, my name is Sasami and...and..."

Seeing the fear in her eyes, Shinji smiled at her causing the girl to blush and wonder why he didn't smile more often. "It must have been very scary having that happen. If you don't want to talk about it we understand right guys?" Looking at the two boys with him, Shinji was under the impression that they agreed with him, they didn't but the look of relief on Sasami's face cleansed them of any need for further questions.

'He's so much like Tenchi,' Sasami thought of the boy that alleviated her from the problem of telling them of her odd arrival. "Yes I'd rather not talk about that right now," bashfully looking at the ground Sasami wanted to know the name of the boy before her, "You three know my name but I don't know yours."

Jumping at the chance to talk to another beautiful girl, Touji stood ridged as if talking to a military supervisor, "Touji Suzuhara!"

Kensuke was a bit more relaxed but just as anxious, "Kensuke Aida, pleased to meet you." Extending his hand, Kensuke took Sasami's in his and bowed slightly, Touji balked at this and wanted to laugh at the over show of stupidity.

Smiling sweetly at the odd boy, Sasami turned her eyes to the one boy whose name mattered. She didn't dislike the other two boys, but their wandering eyes did much to send them into the 'warning' pile in Sasami's mind. "And you?"

Just as Shinji was about to speak, his cell-phone rang. Answering his phone with haste, "Yes...yes...really? I'll be right in! I'm sorry guys, Sasami-san. But I have to go." Flipping his phone closed Shinji ran off towards Nerv as the next angel had just been sighted.

Her outward appearance wasn't hampered but Sasami's eyes spoke of a small but growing sense of depression. "What was that about?"

Kensuke still watching Shinji running off, "Shinji works for Nerv, there must be another angel, we need to get to a shelter quick. Let's go Sasami-chan we'll show you to the nearest one."

"That was Shinji Ikari?" Sasami asked as she found the two boys leading her, and a crowd of other panicky students towards a shelter. 'I can't be that lucky can I?'

Passing the forth group of religious zealots that were waving signs for the angel to 'bestow upon me your foot of Godly might' Touji said what Sasami had prayed for, "Yeah that's Shinji Ikari, why?"

"Misato are you sure this LCL stuff is really necessary?" Shinji asked as his plug was filled with the oddly familiar smelling liquid. Having run all the way to Nerv again having never been told that those agents that stalked...helped him were supposed to drive him to the base.

Not knowing the real reason for the liquid Misato just said, "Try not to worry so much about it. You'll have to ask Ritsuko when we get done ok? Are you ready?" She hated seeing him in that suit it was the symbol of what could be killing him soon.

"I guess so. Is Rei going to be participating in this mission?" Shinji asked with a hint or regret. He didn't want her to be put in danger if she didn't need to be, but he knew, well thought, she was better at this piloting then than he was.

Appearing on another video feed on the left side of Shinji's panel, Ritsuko popped up on the screen. "Rei is...busy right now so it'll just be you again." Ritsuko didn't want to tell Shinji that Rei was with his father, and frankly Gendo was trying to get Rei to put the whip away, Rei was in the mood to punish people.

Misato wasn't too happy with the look of relief on Shinji's face, mainly because it meant he was happy about Rei's safety. "Eva LAUNCH!" She hammered the button and launched the boy into combat.

Sitting in the growing twilight, the fifth angel was grabbing his trowel so he could dig in the sand. He loved playing in the sand and digging holes, but he hated company, he loathed company. His brothers and sisters made so much fun of him for his odd shape that he just couldn't stand anybody being by him anymore. So when Ramiel spotted the large woman standing a few miles away from him he chose to make her go away.

Shigeru was the first to look at the angel's action. "Hey you think it's going to do something? Pass me a coke." Reaching into the cooler the man grabbed a sandwich and reclined back for the show. The others couldn't help but notice he had a point, and they wondered what that sound was.

Shinji found out exactly what the sound was, because it was the angel powering up its crying beam and firing. Blasting through a building and striking him directly in the chest, Shinji was one of the few people to know what boiling human smelt like, unfortunately he smelled himself. Trying to sum up all his pain, questions, and request for help into as compact a statement as possible, Shinji came to one solid answer. "AAAAH"

The next few moments were very confusion for all but Shinji and Kos-Mos. Shinji knew he was in intense pain, Kos-Mos knew she was in pain for a moment as she went into action. Crashing out of the base, Kos-Mos dove in front of the beam only to have it strike her head plate and send here back to the ground and unconscious. Landing next to her was the remains of the head plate leaving her hair now fully exposed to the elements.

Misato rushed from her chair to the launch controls and pulled Shinji back down into the base. "What the hell just happened?" She yelled to those around her whose snacks went uneaten and drinks spilled. Rei was watching now from her position in Gendo's chair with tears in her eyes. Gendo was lying in the corner as one of Rei's whip attacks hit a sore spot and he was out.

Waking in his normal room, Shinji hoped that somehow the angel had died of a heart attack while he was sleeping. As he lie on the bed, he felt odd, his whole body felt hypersensitive. "What happens now?"

"You lay there for a while longer is what you do honey," Kyoshi said as she leaned over from her chair by Shinji's bedside. "You probably feel really sensitive right now, and that's because your skin's been tenderized so to speak."

Sitting up to properly thank the woman, Shinji felt the sheet drop off his chest, and that was when he felt the air hit him. "But what about the angel, I have to do something." Seeing how Kyoshi's eyes slowly drifted down then a blush appeared across her face he looked down too. 'Why don't I have cloths on?' Then he panicked.

Laughing softly at Shinji's antics, Kyoshi opted to tell the scared boy what happened. "We had to cut you out of your suit as it was melted to your skin, and we didn't have anything to put you in." Handing Shinji a spare plug suit, "This just arrived for you and a note that you have to be back to your base in a few hours. I recommend you get some sleep."

With his face as red as it's ever been Shinji clutched the suit to his chest and the sheet crushed against his body. "Th...thank you Kyoshi-san. But I'm not really tired." He couldn't sleep with the worries of what was to come. Surely they had to fight the angel again and it would be him doing it. 'Maybe they'll force Rei into combat this time.'

'Such a poor boy, really feel sorry for him too. I have an idea...he is really cute too.' Taking Shinji's hand away from his chest and holding it, "Shinji, if you don't want to sleep I could always give you the sponge bath I was supposed to." After breaking up with her boyfriend two weeks ago, she had found the meek boy more and more often on her mind. 'He was what I was looking for anyway. Little young but good things come to those who wait.'

Thinking the beautiful nurse was joking Shinji pulled she sheet up closer to his chin, "That's ok Kyoshi-san, I wouldn't want to..." He didn't know how to finish. The nurse's eyes were bewitching him and he had to look away from her. 'She's just doing her job and I bet she'd rather be far away from this particular job right now.'

The urge to laugh rose in her chest but she quelled it. "That's the second time you said that. You really are something else Shinji." Ruffling his hair with her free hand she stood up from her chair and headed for the door. "If you change your mind or need anything, you just push the call button and I'll be right here."

"How are we supposed to stop this thing? It's drilling into Nerv as we speak." Kozo asked his subordinates in Gendo's stead. Unit-01 was to be fixed in a few hours and by all estimates the angel was invincible. "We need a plan and fast."

Thinking fast Ritsuko smiled darkly, "I bet Shion would know what to do, but she's to worried about Kos-Mos to be of any help to us." Seeing the look of irritation spread on Fuyutski's face was more than enough proof that Ritsuko's point was received, as she wanted.

Misato was worried too but not about the now hatless robot, "Shinji's nurse just called, he's woken up and he's been briefed about the need to be back for the next mission."

"Mission, what mission we have no idea about what to do next! We're all going to die!" Makoto screamed as panic finally overwhelmed his senses. Running about the room crying, he wasn't really setting a good atmosphere. He did prove to be a nice relaxant for Misato as she clubbed him with her gun knocking him out.

The air of gloom set in as the conscious bridge members thought of what to do next. Misato suggested they get drunk and pray. Ritsuko suggested releasing Washu to help them like she always did and as always was rejected, and when all hope was about lost Maya spoke up. After she told them her plan they wished she'd stayed quiet, but with no alternative they started the preparations.

"Tell me again how this is going to work?" Shinji asked dubiously after Misato had filled him in on Operation Hendrix. Fully dressed in his plug suit, and slightly happy to hear that Rei wasn't going to participate in the next mission, Shinji waited for the explanation.

Wanting to cry in frustration, Misato just looked at Shinji over the comm. Channel. "Based on the angel's unique design it is possible to destroy it from the inside."

Looking at his weapon for the next battle, Shinji still didn't quite understand it. "How will this do that?"

Reading Maya's detailed and proven report statement, Misato read aloud. "The sound vibrations will ricochet inside the angel's body causing mass dissonance. Said dissonance will cause vibrations to shatter the body. Much attune to a tuning fork by glass."

"But this is basically an electric guitar! And I really don't know how to play!" Shinji was quickly loosing hope for a victory, 'but at least I won't bother Mizuno-san with my homework problems.'

Wanting to prove her point, Maya jumped into the communication, "Like it'll totally work! If we pump enough power into your guitar it'll work for sure!" The tech's voice was so full of energy and pride that even Shinji's sense of self-hatred resonated with it and he felt it could work.

Ritsuko would have put in her two cents but after her break down after Kozo's approval of the mission, she'd been bound and gagged. Rei just watched in silence as she ran her finger along the rim of her glasses. 'Shinji you better live through this angel or Mother help me I'll...' she didn't know what she'd do but nobody would really have liked it.

"I guess we don't have a choice then do we," Shinji said softly before a thought hit him, "Hey where is Kos-Mos?" Having not seen the girl in three days, Shinji wanted to speak to her at least one more time before he risked his life.

Those on the battle sight with Shinji looked at each other, nobody wanted to tell him. Drawing straws Misato drew the short straw, "She was damaged trying to protect you during that last attack. She's in Shion's lab."

'She was hurt because of me? It's my fault she's hurt.' Instead of getting sad, something else happened within the boy, he grew angry. The anger formed into a belt of steel in him and it shined through his eyes. "Let's get this battle started!"

All watching the video feed at that moment lost their breath. The women had it stolen in awe of the boy, the men in astonishment. Smiling at Shinji's determination Misato started the mission by signaling the piping of all of Japan's power into Unit-01's electric guitar.

Two hour later as the mighty axe of musical power was nearing its full charge, the complete bridge crew stood outside the mobile command center. "Damn it why did we need to shut the air conditioning off?" Misato yelled at the now awake but still rattled Makoto.

Having finally freed herself of the duct tape over her mouth, Ritsuko was allowed to speak. "Well we need as much power as possible to get this plan to work so that means no A/C."

Tugging at her collar Misato whined. "But it's so hot! Isn't there anything we can do while we wait for this battle to end?"

Joining the operation, Shion walked over to the crew. "My my complaining over such simple matters while Shinji is putting his life on the line. You mustn't really think much about him." Shion's soft voice masked her instant dislike for the captain.

Rei felt the urge to take her glasses off and punish the audacity of the new woman. "She only speaks that way to distract us for the severity of this mission. If we are too worried we'd not react properly."

"And why aren't you up there helping him anyway?" Shion asked the blue haired girl that looked too much like Kos-Mos for Shion's liking. 'All these people that could be used to fight but they use MY man.'

"This is why nobody likes you Shion. You bitch too much!" Ritsuko yelled. "Rei's not piloting because we couldn't power two Evangelions and have this mission succeed.

Putting her finger to her chin Shion thought for a moment. "Why didn't you use the particle cannon that the third division made, it would have required less energy and would have allowed both units be used?"

The crew looked at each other and thought in unison, 'Why didn't I think of that?' The silence was enough to prove to Shion that she really did need to attend meetings more often. From out of nowhere, Maya chimed in her happiest voice. "No fear Maya is here! And I brought our salvation!" She proclaimed as she dropped a cooler on the ground at their feet.

Doing his best to remain calm as the guitar and the giant amps charged around him, Shinji called up Misato. "Misato I think this is as ready as it'll ever be," noticing Misato's guilty expression, "What are you doing?"

Hiding her Popsicle behind her back, Misato laughed quickly, "Nothing nothing. If your ready we'll begin the operation ok?" Looking at the other crewmembers, each of which was eating their own Popsicles in attempts to beat the heat, she signaled them all into position.

A cherry flavored treat in her mouth, Rei wondered why she'd never eaten such a thing like this before, she also wondered if it was a good thing that they were all eating treats as Shinji was about to risk his life fighting an angel with an electric guitar. Then she saw something else, 'Who is that girl and why does she have the same look as me.'

"Begin Operation Hendrix!" Misato yelled over the comm. link and went back to her dripping Popsicle.

On cue, Shinji jumped up from his position behind a large hill side and grabbed his instrument of Godly might. Taking a moment to apply his knowledge of the cello to the guitar Shinji started playing the music provided to him. Aiming the neck of the guitar at the angel Shinji sent raw rock and roll streaming at the odd box child.

Being a lover of classical music and only classical music Ramiel shuddered under the musical assault. 'This isn't fun anymore!' he cried to himself. Upon seeing the party pooper, the six year old angel let loose another beam towards the parental figure. But due to the queasy feeling in his stomach missed his mark and only hit the lady in her feet. As the sound didn't subside and the feeling of sickness increased, Ramiel threw up...and in the process broke into many tiny pieces.

Jumping out of his entry plug to the ground, Shinji was met by a large group of people. Many of which had disposed of the evidence of their in-battle treat long before they ran to greet him.

Hearing cheers of congratulations, good job, and the occasional call for, based on what he could tell, for Misato to 'take it off baby' but he didn't know why those voices were female. Shinji felt pretty good, despite the oddness of the battle.

He was about to join Misato for the ride back to Nerv for the debriefing but was stopped by the girl he knew as Sasami and the others knew as 'that odd girl with a death wish.'

"Sasami-san what are you doing here?" Shinji asked to the blushing girl before him. Rei, after finally seeing Shinji started running towards the boy.

Sasami knelt at Shinji's feet. "Shinji-sama I'm here to fulfill our obligation to our parents and join you in holy matrimony."

Shinji just looked at the girl as the words hit him, "What?"

"Your mother and my...guardian have arranged for us to be wed, I have all the legal documents with me. I'll do my best to be the best wife for you," Sasami said with a hint of bashfulness in her voice mixed with fear. 'I could get to like this.'

Rei heard Sasami all to well and launched herself at the girl, "you carbon copy of me how dare you try and take my Shinji!'

Looking as Sasami's odd facial markings flashed a pale green, Shinji knew she wasn't a normal girl, nor was Rei. "Why won't people just tell me what's going on in my own life?"

Author Notes

Yup another chapter done and oddly enough NO NEW CHARACTERS this time I guess its time to move the story on a little bit before adding anybody else

Hope you like this one and continue to read despite my problems I'll keep trying!

Ja Mata

Zentrodie

Omake

Updated battle lines!!

Those siding with Kos-Mos: Xeo, Konos the Grey, Golden Kitsune, ScienceMonkey, Nicknack, DarkChuchuo, Sybian Machine, Final Max, Crrot, Sol bandus, Pandomine, Vaurnut, NickNack, Soulless, Sleepy Kitty, Deus, GoldmonX, renzokuken-sama, James Ray Edwards, KevinEc, Alpha Draconis1, a fan3, Science Monkey Total: 23

Those siding with Rei: Otaku-Dman, Vibious, SoulFire, Macavity the Mystery Cat, Dark Machine, Philg, NickNack, Azurewind, Redmage2k, Rei-aka-Ayanami-chan, jennyjennie, rgreat, Katfum, Oni-Otaku, wiseman, Crimson Arrow Total: 16

Those siding with Asuka: Kusinagi, Nova10, Vibious, Final Max, Kuracao, Razial the Damned, Redshadow64, xXx, Supereva0102, Asuka-fan, SOMEBODY, Supereva01, Knighsshadow, WarpWizard, Dude, Dragon's death Total: 16

Those wanting a Harem: deinku, VCR, Jon Cook (w/o Asuka), mc2rpg, Positron(for now), Hank, Finalfantasyxii, chan,ken, kins of Ireland, Mordamir Total: 9

Those siding with Mana: Player 0, Steve Vader, Chewy, Rusty Knight Production Total: 4

Those siding with Shion Uzuki: Remenants, Final Max, EchoGarrote, Golden Kitsune Total : 4

Those siding with Blue haired girlsOrganized Kaos, Trikster Total: 2

Those siding with Misato: Kippenberger, JVR Total: 2

Those siding with Hikari: Amathyst Wind Total: 1

Those siding with Yui Ikari: Zang-Sama total: 1

Those siding with Sasami: Doggystyle Total: 1

Epsilon is still debating

Well there you have it the updated battle lines! The harem vote is picking up steam. Kos-Mos is widening her lead over the ice/fire queens and Asuka and Rei are still tied for second!

Who will win, who will get the bulk of the attention during future episodes...only YOU THE VIEWER CAN DESIDE!! So if you are undecided chose! Or you will never get to hear your voice rose! Um...lil over the top but well their you have it Ja!


	9. Nine, no its not German

Standard Disclaimer

Well first off I want to apologize for the lack of updates on any of my writings. Last semester is full of projects that demand a lot of time and I've actually been able to work a bit more...plus I have to try and get the 'big job' so times a scarce commodity.

Currently I'm working on mst of CoaEG 12 and its about half done, and still in planning for next OoD. As for my other fics...those are still on hiatus till I finish OoD so...I'm writing this chap to inform you of my current state of affairs and to work off some stress hope you like it.

(This is a space filler)

What we Make of it

Chapter 9 – Left Behind

Or

One really rowdy study group

If he were asked prior to the last angel encounter, Shinji would have told you that he thought his life was getting better. He was living with a woman that, even though he knew it was only work related, seemed to care about him. Another girl said she cared about him, but again he knew it wasn't genuine. Rei was impressionable after all. And he actually owned something of actual worth, though he'd never claim to own Kos-Mos.

"Then, after that damned angel that made TOkyo-3 it's person sandbox, it went straight to hell. As Shinji approached his comrades after the victory he was shown his only hope for marriage, enslavement based upon parental demand. 'I knew I'd never marry because of love...nobody could love me anyway.' So as Sasami told him about the intent of their parents he felt sorry for her but relieved a little that he wouldn't be alone all his life.

That's when things started to change. The look on Rei's face when she raced over to them was so full of rage. 'I guess she was upset that somebody would be forced into a relationship with me. I guess she got over her false feelings for me then.' Yes, Shinji thought Rei was upset at Sasami being forced to wed him, not that Rei wanted to be in her place.

He watched as the two girls fought each other while the Nerv crew pulled out lounge chairs and watched and cheered. Before Shinji could stop them, Sasami pulled a whip out of nowhere and yanked Rei's feet out from under her ending the fight. As Rei landed on the ground a posse of section-2 agents surrounded his would be wife and, led by Misato, took her away.

That was the last time in three days that he saw Misato as well. So now the boy was sitting in front of the television with Pen-Pen at his feet eating happily at the meal Shinji made. "I knew she didn't really care about me but I still liked how it felt." Idly switching channels, Sumomo walked out of his room and plopped herself in Shinji's lap.

"Shinji-sama you need to be happy! SMILE SMILE!" the machine chimed as she paraded around before him in the hope to make him happy. Being as sickly cute as she was, she only got a small smile from the boy.

Taking the robot into his hands and raising it up so they could technically look eye to eye, "I'm sorry Sumomo-san, its just I thought things were changing. That I might make some actual friends here." His sense of depression getting a fresh jolt of life, Shinji's self-esteem dropped to the nice negative value that is had prior to his journey to Tokyo-3.

"Kos-Mos-sama likes you!" Sumomo tried as she patted Shinji's cheeks. It broke her emotion circuit to see her master like this. But being as small as the machine was, her actions to cheer him up were limited. She tried dancing again in his palm to limited success.

"Kos-Mos...I wasn't worthy of her and it's my fault she's still being fixed," Sumomo's words did more damage than good as they made Shinji think about the poor android. "All I did for her was to cause her pain and now Uzuki-san said she may not be able to come back here."

Sighing again, Shinji just looked at the clock, 'Hmm three hours till the study group at Hikawa shrine, maybe I shouldn't go.' But he promised Ami over the phone that he would make it and he'd sooner sand off his legs with sandpaper dipped in lemon juice before he'd break a promise. Sumomo just looked at her master and felt horrible.

(This is a section divider...ok don't take it away!)

Kos-Mos was beyond what humans would describe as strong. She could lift over five hundred pounds with one hand, she could transmute her arms into anything she wanted, and when emotionally charged could defy the laws of physics. And she was sorely tempted, after hearing her master berate himself on her account and know how much he was suffering now, to ripe her creator's head from it's body and throw it into the sun in under three seconds.

But Kos-Mos needed Shion to remove her master from the clutches of Katsuragi so she couldn't, yet. "Shion I need to go now. My master needs me!" the android said from her position strapped to Shion's examination table, not like the straps could have actually held her.

"How do you know that Kos-Mos?" Shion asked mildly interested as she hacked into Sumomo's visual ports and was watching Shinji watch television. 'My he really is my perfect man isn't he.' Still pretending to be doing tests on the machine while in reality she was just stalling for time, Shion was planning. 'I need to get him to myself for awhile and then get him into my care, and then I can deactivate Kos-Mos.'

Watching her newly freed hair blowing due to the office air conditioner, Kos-Mos wondered how she was to style such a thing. "Have you devised a way to liberate him yet?" Easily freeing herself from her restraints, Kos-Mos moved to behind the still daydreaming Shion to view the screen the scientist was avidly watching. "Shion..."

"Yes Kos-Mos, something wrong?" the slightly absent minded be speckled woman asked as adjusted the camera feed and initiated the screen capture mode. 'What does she need now...if she wants me to wind her up she'll need to find the key first...' Not hearing a response Shion looked at the table and found it empty. "Kos-Mos?"

"I'm behind you," Kos-Mos replied as her own attention was drawn to the screen. "I was unaware that Sumomo would follow him into the privy, why are you watching him bath?" Her gloved hand slowly snaking its way behind the good scientist's neck, just in the case Shion's reply wasn't to her liking.

Quickly striking the key commands that shut down the image of Shinji preparing for his study session, Shion swiveled her chair around and missed Kos-Mos retracting her hand. Knowing the best thing to do in this situation was to lie, she did. "I was just checking to insure your connection speed hadn't been dampened by your lose of your visor, and your only external source is Sumomo so I tapped into it."

Never realizing that Shion had devised a way to avoid her lie detector, Kos-Mos believed her. "I believe we have another problem now as well. That girl, the one named Sasami Jurai, claims to be Shinji-sama's betrothed."

"Oh that," Shion had witnessed the odd arrival of the girl, but had figured that based on Nerv principles she'd have been drawn, quartered, and the sections sent to the corners of the earth as was required in the employee manual. "I'm sure the commander will take care of that."

(Another break that I hope stays in place)

He was intimidating, he was fear, he was not a man to cut in front of in a shopping line, he was Gendo Ikari. And at present he was very very afraid. 'Shit! I sold the body of that boy to at least seven companies as a husband and now I find out my wife, who I love and revere, was a low down dirty bitch and sold him first!' Yes Gendo wasn't too happy to learn about Shinji and Sasami's pre-nuptial agreement. Shifting in his chair he felt the ice in the bag between his legs shift slightly.

As Kos-Mos and Shion discussed Nerv policies regarding trespassing, Rei barged into Gendo's office as quietly as possible. But seeing how she'd just read Slayers and adapted to Lina Inverse, barge was a fireball to the door. "Commander we need to talk."

Inching his way behind Gendo, Kozo could only prey for his own life, and that Gendo would make a suitable shield if Rei got dragon happy. "What brings you here Rei, shouldn't you be testing Unit-00 right now?" the second in command questioned.

"Rei! What did I tell you about breaking into my office with implements of destruction?" Gendo bellowed trying to sound frightening, but due to the pain from his burns sounded more like a shrill yelp. Lowering himself back into his chair and putting the ice bag back into place, "Now what is it that you want?"

Being one for direct answers Rei responded, "That girl's head on a pole atop the Geo-Front." Rei wasn't taking the defeat, the marriage threat, and the lump on her bum from the fall very lightly. "Failing that I want her expelled from Japan."

"I can't have her killed because you want her dead," Gendo lied; he'd have people killed that tailgated him or looked at him funny. And he had seen that girl fight so he thought she could be used IF she denounced the marriage. "You'll just have to find some other way of dealing with her."

Rei was appalled by her next set of actions, but she knew they worked. Walking up to Gendo and sitting on his desk, "Pweese commander...pwetty pweese! I really want her gone." Letting the sap flow from her words like maple syrup from a tree, Rei poured every ounce of acting ability into her performance. 'He's a sucker for this act and I can't lose my Shinji!'

Kozo saw Gendo's shoulders go ridged. 'So she's going to use the sad daughter trick to get Gendo to kill the girl...not bad but I have a better idea.' As he saw Gendo reaching for his gun, Kozo stepped out from behind the man. "Rei wouldn't you rather win Shinji's affection back from her?"

"His affection IS mine he just doesn't know it yet. And she never took it from me," Rei's eyes hardened as she bore them into Kozo's skull. Most people knew not to even talk to Rei after she'd read Slayers...she was just too stubborn. "I'll do it myself if I have to."

Kozo looked at Gendo and as expected saw the commander unable to speak. 'Some leader you are. Can't stand up to one angel human hybrid.' Walking over to Rei, Kozo put a book in her hand, "Why kill her simply. Why not beat her in fair combat! He will see you fighting for his freedom and come running to you!"

Unable to think in coherent thoughts Gendo just agreed with Kozo, "Yes Rei, you can make her suffer on your own terms and you'll face no consequences." Had Gendo been able to think straight he'd have known better but Rei simply could mess his mind up.

Looking at the book in her hands, Rei lips curled back in a feral smile, "I'll beat her this time and claim my prize!" Rushing off to parts unknown Rei was determined to prepare for combat and for the celebratory day, night, and repetition of the two with her prize her love.

With Rei gone, Gendo's mind returned to normal, "What did you give her?" He tried to look intimidating again but Kozo wasn't buying it.

His face lighting up like a small sun he admitted, "My copy of Lone-Wolf and cub." Kozo had a small thing for samurai literature and simply loved honorable combat. 'This will be very good indeed.'

"You gave her that! That is so...so..." Gendo wanted to agree with Kozo but that would mean he'd have to give credit to somebody else and that wasn't possible.

With a few tears sliding down his face, Kozo was just too happy. "It will be a grand battle!"

(JOY! Another segment begins...happy aren't ya )

Things weren't going very well for Misato. For three solid days she'd been going over this whole bit in her mind. The smoke was great from her ears as the gears cranked and churned in an attempt to come to an answer. She even contemplated bringing Ritsuko in to help her on it but she didn't want her friend asking questions about why it was so important to her. 'I doubt Ritsuko would like knowing I have a thing for my ward, she may even try getting him taken away from me.'

Truth was, she wanted to be home with Shinji, but now she had to crack Sasami. Three days worth of Nerv's best agents searching into her background came up with nothing. 'No records, no family listing, no jobs, no home, no nothing! How can she be here and they find nothing!' Taking her seat in the drab room with nothing but a table, chairs and a screening window Misato sat across from the girl that would take what she wanted. "I want you to tell me again about why you are here." Misato demanded in an exasperated voice.

Smiling softly as only Sasami could in the face of the haggard woman she answered, "I'm here to become Mrs. Sasami Ikari...or make him Mr. Shinji Jurai you don't think he'll mind changing his surname, father would rather keep it that way." She asked as she put her finger to her chin in thought.

'She hasn't even stopped smiling! Damn I wish she was a man, all it takes is a little of my cleavage and they can't help but tell me their whole life story but nooooooo,' Misato cried mentally as the girl's cute face continued to enrage her. Sliding the empty recon sheets across the table to the girl, Misato tapped them roughly with her fingers, "Miss Jurai you don't have any records in this country or any proof you are who you claim to be. What makes you think we'll hand over our best pilot to you on your claim?"

Her eyes clouding a little, Sasami was at a loss for what to say, Galactic charter decreed not to let underdeveloped planets know of the existence of aliens. Balling her fists on her lap, Sasami's brow furrowed and one of her pigtails swayed blocking her line of sight. 'I wish Ayeka was here, or Tenchi, or even Washu. Somebody that could help me with his.' Peering into the eyes of her interrogator, Sasami didn't even know the brown-eyed lady's name. "But it's true. My father and my...guardian arranged this wedding."

"Oh yeah this Washu Hakubi woman you spoke of, the one that doesn't exist," Misato said drolly, having never been told of Nerv's very dangerous secret. Well one of the few thousand very dangerous secrets that Nerv found it best not to tell anybody about. "Unless you give us your real name I'll have no choice but to arrest you for attempting to infiltrate Nerv." And a part of Misato's mind was dancing as she envisioned her burning the marriage forms.

Sasami's façade of cheer finally broke as the days of questions and the fear of imprisonment overrode her senses. A sparkling of tears started to fall down her cheeks, "But I didn't do anything wrong," dabbing the tears with the sleeve of her kimono, "I haven't even been allowed to talk to my betrothed yet and...and..." Unable to continue speaking Sasami simply started to cry steadily.

Had Misato not being thinking of Sasami as a contender for Shinji's heart, she'd have rushed over to console the poor girl. Part of her wanted to regardless, but there was to be no mercy for the competition. About to push herself away from the table and take a break from the inquisition when a sound caught her attention. "Who let a cat in here?" Then she saw the source of the noise and wanted to cry herself, "What did Ritsuko make this time?"

Perched in Sasami's lap was an odd cat that looked like it had rabbit ears and tail. Currently mewing softly and nuzzling the crying girl's cheek, Misato heard the girl say "Ryo-oki you're ok!" How the girl knew its name was lost on Misato as she couldn't keep here eyes away from the creature.

"It's just too cute," Misato said as the urge to pet the furry creature rose in her mind. Then the door opened and a small red haired child walked in followed by Ritsuko.

"What are you doing to my ward young lady?" Washu asked Misato who could only balk as Ritsuko looked away from the scene with a small hint of fear on her face.

(This would be easier if it weren't for 's odd scripting)

As Washu verified not only Sasami's existence but provided evidence for the arranged marriage, two boys sat in a bedroom. It was Touji's room, and it was as messy as one would expect from a teenage boy. "What is this great plan of yours that couldn't wait unto school tomorrow to tell me?" Touji was only slightly pissed off as he was interrupted as he searched for photos of Shinji's blue haired companion. No it wasn't Rei, Sasami, or Ami it was Kos-Mos.

As if taking a cue from Gendo, Kensuke slid his glasses up his nose and hid his mouth behind his hands. The effect didn't work because he was standing so his arms were hanging in mid-air. "I thought of a great idea to make a lot of money for us, and for my boys."

"Kensuke I don't believe you're dad is in the Yakuza so drop the 'boys' bit," Touji said as he shook his head in disgust. The look in Kensuke's eyes didn't waver so Touji then questioned, "We going to start selling photos again?"

"Better," the smile widened on the geek's face as he set up his laptop and pulled up a small spreadsheet. "This will make us a killing!"

Touji and numbers weren't friends, one would call them bitter enemies but those people are idiots as numbers aren't alive. That factoid aside, looking at the spreadsheet Touji didn't understand what his buddy was so excited about. "Are those the girls' three figures?"

Looking at the screen to make sure he didn't bring up the wrong file, Kensuke clicked his tongue. "No, that's a side project. This, my friend, is the betting pool!" The response Kensuke got was a very confused face and silence. Sighing Kensuke remembered he had to spell things out for Touji. "Try to follow me. You know Shinji right?"

Having become friends with the boy, Touji could say yes to that. "He's a little depressed but yeah I know him, what does he have to do with those girls' names and that number?

"For some odd reason," Kensuke continued, "those girls' seem to have a thing for him and might make a play on him." Waiting for any questions his friend might ask, Kensuke started up again, "These are the odds of those girls actually bagging him!"

"Bagging...do you mean kidnapping him?" Touji asked in an unusual show of utter stupidity before his lower mind kicked in and his nose bled a little. "You mean if they..."

Kensuke nodded the affirmative. "We simply let those girls' bet on who they think will get him first and we'll make a killing! We can even set up the winner if a girl gets a good enough payout!"

It was evil, it was wrong, it was actually one of the better ideas that Kensuke had come up with in his short life. Touji slammed his left fist into his right palm, "Dude! That's actually a good idea! We just can't let him find out about it."

"I know that. Also we need to get these out soon so we can start getting the bets to come in," Kensuke said with pride. Yes, Kensuke had big plans on making a lot of money off his friend's love life. He and his father's Yakuza could always use a little more money.

(WOW what a shocking scene! Lets see what's next, I bet its plot related.)

It wasn't the first time Maya was given an odd assignment. Ritsuko seemed to give her a bevy of them, mostly revolving her wearing costumes and posing, but Maya thought it was fun so never complained. Today's assignment gave her the creeps though. Not the creeps like having to give Gendo a sponge bath it was the creeps you get after reading a scary book then walking alone at night.

Over the past few hours a lot of people had heard strange sounds all over Nerv. Normally Misato would have been given that detail but Ritsuko informed her that Misato needed a little nap after talking to some woman named Washu. Shion would have been next but Shion claimed Kos-Mos needed to have a screw replaced and was to busy fixing it. So the job fell through many more cracks until landing in Maya's lap.

Going down the list of unexplained sounds, Maya had visited the dumpster, the third stall in the men's room, behind Misato's desk, the animal lockers, and now she was walking along a series of exposed ventilation shafts. "Hello...Mr. Ghost person are you there?" Shuffling along the wall with an oversized crucifix in hand, Maya was very scared. A sudden bang from the vent above her head erupted in a very loud yelp from the young technician.

"Whose there?" Maya screamed as she branded the cross like a weapon and sealed her eyes shut. Thinking of her happy place, which happened to be the mall, Maya slowly felt her back moving along the wall as she slid down it. Another loud bang was heard, and she knew it was the entrance grate moving aside. "STAY AWAY!!"

A voice hiding small notion of aggravation prompted Maya to open her eyes, "Would you keep your voice down I am trying to read." Rei had said from her position inside the air conditioning vents. Eyeing the flashlight strapped to Maya's side, "Are you going to use that?"

Her wondering why Rei would be in an air vent aside, Maya was very relieved, "Gee Rei I thought you were a ghost!" Handing the flashlight over to Rei's expecting hand, Maya's other hand clenched the tuft of hair at the back of her head. "What are you doing in there?"

Turning the flashlight on Rei looked away from the girl as she tried to jump up into the vent. "I am reading and preparing for my battle." Taking her defeat very seriously, Rei wasn't about to let Sasami keep what was rightfully hers. "What are you doing?"

Looking a little bashful, Maya stared at the opening in the vent. "I was hoping we could hang out a bit. Everybody else is so busy and I'm bored." Taking a few steps back, Maya gave a running jump towards the vent and succeeded not only in gaining access, but also smashing her head into the ceiling and colliding with Rei. "Sorry."

Letting the incident pass, Rei closed her book, "What do you mean hang out?"

Rubbing the sore spot on her head, Maya looked at Rei, "Talk, mess around, you know have fun. We can start by talking about this whole battle thing you're studying for." Having seen the Rei Vs Sasami battle Maya could have made an educated guess but wanted a true answer.

"I wish to reclaim my right to Shinji so I must do battle with the one named Sasami and regain my honor and my property." Rei's voice full of passion and self didn't notice how Maya started giggling.

"Silly if you want to win a man's heart you don't target your competition! I have a book that could help you, Ritsuko sempai gave it to me." Having instantly developed a liking to Rei's new personality, Maya had no trouble helping her. "Its called '101 ways to please your lover!' don't know why she gave it to me though."

Intrigued by Maya's statement, Rei chose not to shove her out of the vent and opted to indulge in some 'hanging out.' That was when the really scary learning began.

(The rest of this chapter has Shinji in it...but you're upset at that.)

Standing at the feet of the Hikawa Shrine, Shinji first started to feel genuine fear about proceeding. Sumomo needed to be recharged so she was sleeping safely in his room so he'd be alone. 'I don't want to be a nuisance to this study group, but I need the help,' he thought as he started walking up the tree laden path. His fears started to abate as the serene atmosphere encompassed him. "Maybe it won't be that bad, Muzino-san said it was only her and four others so it can't be that bad."

Looking at the small map Ami had given him, Shinji located the living quarters and the location of the study group. Taking his shoes off, Shinji climbed up the wooden steps and knocked lightly on the edge of the shoji door. "Hello, Muzino-san its Shinji. I'm here for the study group."

From behind the door, Shinji heard a lot of shuffling and a few muffled voices before he got an answer. "Shinji-san one moment ok?" It was Ami's voice, and after a few more muffled yelps, the door opened and Ami stepped out. "Shinji-san I was hoping you'd make it to today's session. We've all been hoping to add some new...elements to the group."

As Ami stood aside, Shinji entered a room about the size of his living room and saw the other members of the study group. 'Its those cos-players,' he thought before bowing formally, "Thank you for accepting me into your group. If you didn't know my name is Shinji Ikari."

Rushing to his side, Shinji was pulled over to the kotetsu by the girl with long blond hair and an orange ribbon, "The pleasure is all ours Shinji, I'm Minako Aino and I couldn't be happier that you're here." Sitting Shinji at the table right next to her spot, Minako received a few glares from her friends.

Across from him a brown haired woman spoke next, "Makoto Kino, pleasure to meet you." She extended her hand across the table and shook Shinji's. "I made cheesecake for the group, feel free to eat any thing you find...attractive."

The innuendo flying way over Shinji's head he smiled and thanked her for the offer, "It looks delicious Kino-san, you'll have to give me the recipe." Looking at the delicacy on the table, Shinji could have sworn it was in the shape of a heart but put off such silly notions as his normal total incompetence. 'Why would such a lovely woman do such a thing?'

Usagi who was openly staring at Shinji had a bit of drool hanging from her mouth, Rei seeing thus spoke next. "That idiot over there is Usagi, and if you're not careful she'll eat everything in sight." Finding Shinji's eyes wafting over to her direction, Rei couldn't help but blush as she locked eyes with his, "I'm Rei Hino, as you can tell by my outfit I'm the priestess here."

"Rei-chan I'm not an idiot" Usagi interrupted as Rei started to inch closer to Shinji, "I was just looking at...the cake." Usagi shut her mouth after her near slipup with admitting her true target. "Shin-chan" the pigtailed girl chirped happy to regain Shinji's attention, "this is Luna and Artemis."

Seeing the two cats on the table, Shinji reached out and scratched the chin of each. "Such cute cats," Shinji admitted as the black one moved over to him and curled up on his lap. "Again I'm thankful for you accepting me into your group. Is it just the five of you?"

Minako, grabbing Artemis and holding the rampage at bay, replied "No we have three others that come on occasion, and a younger girl named Hotaru that Ami tutors on occasion."

Feeling and hearing the purring of the cat in his lap increase as he pet her, Shinji smiled, "That's very nice of you Muzino-san it's a shame not everybody can have a friend like you."

Had Shinji not been smiling the other senshi would have become slightly irked that Shinji praised Ami, instead they melted. Ami, the most affected just nodded and smiled, "You're our friend too Shinji-san so no need for the formalities."

"Well shall we begin studying then?" Shinji asked as he pulled out one of his books and set it on the table, totally missing the dreamy looks on the faces of the girls around him. 'They all seem so close I bet they feel like I'm intruding here.'

So the study session began in earnest. Ami did the majority of coaching taking special attention to Shinji's studies. Usagi and Rei got into an argument about something Shinji thought was about the phone usage, but in reality was about him. Makoto and Minako just stared at Shinji over the tops of their books. All the senshi had one thought in common, 'I really think he's the one for me.'

(Not that bad was it? Well always more room for more senshi)

"Are you sure its ok for me to go to your place this late at night?" Shinji asked his walking companion as they rounded a corner. Not one for thinking highly of himself, and never one to believe a beautiful woman would ever find interest in him Shinji was at a loss for his current situation.

Smiling at Shinji, Makoto waved her hand in front of her face. "I said I'd get you that recipe and I intend to do so." Makoto had beaten her friends to the punch as the study session drew to a close and convinced Shinji to walk her home. But now that she had him with her, she couldn't find the courage to speak. 'I can fight demons with my hands but I can't talk to this guy!'

Taking Makoto's silence as a form of protest, Shinji's depression deepened a little. Stealing a peek at Makoto, Shinji caught a glimpse of her face illuminated by the moonlight that peeked through the deepening cloud cover. What he saw and accidentally said caught both of them off guard. 'Oh no! I really shouldn't have said that, she'll think me a pervert!'

Coming into sight of her condo, Makoto came to a complete halt as Shinji's words reverberated in her ears. The total unexpected nature of it, and how it played on one of her greatest worries, Makoto couldn't help but ask, "What did you just say?" Her tone was soft and hopefully expectant.

Being totally incapable of lying, Shinji just looked at his feet and was mentally preparing his soul for the after life. "I said...that in the moonlight you look very beautiful." He had meant it to. The soft pale light of the moon had accented Makoto's features and illuminated her earrings pulling out even more of her hidden beauty.

Makoto had a few issues with her appearance. From an early age she had been bigger than the other girls. She'd been made fun of for her size and strength, never did she consider herself to be attractive to the opposite sex, and that was why she cooked, to give herself some sense of femininity. So when Shinji repeated his words she felt her legs get weak. 'Nobody...nobody has ever said...or even shown...I love this boy.'

Hanging his head in shame for his terrible offensive remark that penetrated all of Makoto's external defenses and struck her heart, Shinji turned to walk away. Grabbing Shinji's arm, Makoto fought herself to speak. Wanting to say great and poetic things but her mind was mush so she opted for, "Its ok...I'll get you that recipe ok?"

Relieved that she wasn't upset for his horrendous behavior, Shinji turned and let Makoto lead him to her condo. "Your parents won't be upset for you having company this late at night would you?" Shinji asked as he looked at his watch that read eleven o'clock.

Her emotional high was momentarily grounded by that comment, Opening the door and letting Shinji inside, "I live alone. Both of my parents died in a plane crash when I was younger." Having come to terms with their death a long time ago, Makoto soon recovered. "So don't worry about waking anybody we can make as much noise as we want," turning away from Shinji and shutting the door she added very softly, "all night long."

Missing the extra comment, Shinji had walked deeper into Makoto's den. "It's so clean you do a great job with the place." His compliments fell on deaf ears as Makoto was envisioning many alternating scenarios. "So where do you keep your recipes?"

Shook from her daydream, Makoto was about to speak when a bolt of lightning followed by a crack of thunder was heard. Both ran to the window and beheld a great deluge that had begun. "Look at how wet it is," Makoto said off handedly then realized how bad that sounded, looking at Shinji she noticed he was just shaking his head.

"Going to be a long walk in that," Shinji said softly to himself as he watched the sheets of rainfall. Remembering how Misato hadn't been home in the past few days, he doubted he could contact her for a ride home either.

'CHANCE!!!' Makoto saw an opportunity in the making at that comment. "You can't go out in this weather! You can just stay here tonight." Seeing the look of semi-shock on Shinji's face Makoto added, "We can share some recipes and cleaning tips, maybe watch a movie or two sound fun?"

Switching from the pouring rain to Makoto's face and back, Shinji although it was hard for him to do, was selfish. "If you don't mind, I really don't want to get a cold from the rain." Another bolt of lighting flashed and the light faded. "Power outage?"

'This must be my reward for fighting all those demons!' Makoto thought as she led Shinji to the couch. "I'll be right back with some candles. I doubt this gets fixed anytime soon." Rushing about in the dark for candles, Makoto slipped on a floor mat and knocked her head against the wall ending her conscious thoughts for the night.

After waiting a few minutes, Shinji stumbled about the apartment, found Makoto and carried the prone woman to what he later realized was her bedroom. After pulling the covers over her, and feeling like a molester for his act of goodwill, Shinji felt his way back to the living room couch and felt asleep on it.

In the morning when Makoto woke up, she found her place a bit cleaner, a meal waiting for her on the table, and a thank you slash apology letter from Shinji. Taking a timid bite of the food, Makoto cursed her luck from the last night...then the taste hit her and she inhaled her plate. "He will be mine, oh yes he will be mine."

(Ready for the last scene? I bet not but have to end it someplace.)

Dragging his body into the apartment, Shinji still felt terrible for his selfless act of helping Makoto. 'I bet she won't forgive me for what I did.' Walking further into his shared apartment, Shinji noticed Misato's shoes were there, as well as another pair. "Misato-san you home? Do we have company?"

Shinji's question was answered as a pair of arms, and a body that was attached to them rushed against him. "Shinji-dono your home and we can finally meet!" Sasami chirped against the boy's chest. Washu was insistent that the girl go home with Misato, and as Misato bathed, Sasami was given her third visit with her hopeful husband. "We have so much to talk about."

"Sasami-san what are you doing here?" Shinji asked as the blush on his face increased as the girl added more force to her hug. Wondering mildly where Misato was, he saw her walk out of the bathroom door and rush over to them too...unfortunately or fortunately if you like this sort of thing, Misato who was clad only in a towel forgot to hold onto it and said garment fell to the ground.

Ripping the boy out of Sasami's grip and applying a hug that looked more like a submission hold, Misato didn't mind her lack of dress Shinji and Sasami did however. "Shin-chan where have you been I've been worried sick about you?"

"Misato-san you are indecent! Please put some clothes on while your in the company of my to be husband!" Sasami said hotly as she tried to liberate Shinji from Misato's vice like grip. Had Tenchi heard Sasami's voice just then he'd have sworn she'd turned into Ayeka.

Looking over at Sasami, "But this is how I always greet him," she lied. 'How I want to greet him sometimes at least.' Turning back to look in Shinji's panicky face, she wanted to laugh but couldn't. Before she had left Nerv the previous night Ritsuko had given her a new assignment. "Get your stuff ready Shinji were going on a plane ride. Apparently Nerv Germany didn't just make Unit-02 like they were supposed to, they found the second child as well."

Nobody knew how that was possible or why Nerv Germany was so insistent upon getting rid of both. Whatever the case Misato was given the charge of collecting it and she'd be damned if she left Shinji in another's care for that time. "Call up a friend or two because you can have company."

"Isn't it great Shinji-dono! Our first trip as an engaged couple we can really get to know one another." Sasami smiled brightly at Shinji as he fell to the ground out of Misato's grasp.

"What did I do to deserve this?" Shinji asked himself as Sasami slapped a towel around Misato's midsection and an odd cat thing jumped into Shinji's lap, meowed and fell asleep there.

(Well...the end.)

Author Notes

Again this was written more as an offering of apology for the lax work in my other stories as to date. Hope you don't mind the wait and I'll try to find more time to write.

I'll do my best and I hope you like the latest addition to this story.

Well Ja mata

Zentrodie )

Omake

Updated battle lines!!

Those siding with Kos-Mos: Xeo, Konos the Grey, ScienceMonkey, Nicknack, DarkChuchuo, Sybian Machine, Final Max, Crrot, Sol bandus, Pandomine, Vaurnut, NickNack, Soulless, Sleepy Kitty, Deus, renzokuken-sama, James Ray Edwards, KevinEc, Alpha Draconis1, a fan3, Science Monkey, Darklion74, Serpent Spy, Soulless, Jin Kazemeijin Total: 25

Those siding with Asuka: Kusinagi, Nova10, Vibious, Final Max, Kuracao, Razial the Damned, Redshadow64, xXx, Supereva0102, Asuka-fan, SOMEBODY, Supereva01, Knighsshadow, WarpWizard, Dude, Dragon's death, NefCanuck, Uniden, A/S Fan Total: 19

Those siding with Rei: Otaku-Dman, Vibious, SoulFire, Macavity the Mystery Cat, Dark Machine, Philg, NickNack, Azurewind, Redmage2k, Rei-aka-Ayanami-chan, jennyjennie, rgreat, Katfum, Oni-Otaku, wiseman, Crimson Arrow, Player0, GoldmonX, Total: 18

Those wanting a Harem: deinku, VCR, Jon Cook (w/o Asuka), mc2rpg, Positron(for now), Hank, Finalfantasyxii, chan,ken, kins of Ireland, Mordamir, Kman, Valtiel, Epsilon, ShadowCascade, EchoGarrote, Vic, Frank the Bunny (Don't chain me up!), NateGold Total: 17

Those siding with Sasami: Doggystyle, razzor15, Vaurnut, Golden Kitsune, Total: 4

Those siding with Blue haired girlsOrganized Kaos, Trikster , Kima Prideflame, Nick McC Total: 4

Those siding with Mana: Steve Vader, Chewy, Rusty Knight Production Total: 3

Those siding with Shion Uzuki: Remenants, Final Max, Golden Kitsune Total : 3

Those siding with Misato: Kippenberger, JVR Total: 2

Those siding with Hikari: Amathyst Wind Total: 1

Those siding with Yui Ikari: Zang-Sama total: 1

Epsilon choses HAREM

And there you have it! The battle lines have been updated and Kos-Mos still has the lead and will be getting the center stage next chapter, but as we can see Asuka takes the second spot followed by Rei and the harem is gaining momentum.

Don't like it? Vote. You voted already? Well then get your friends to vote with you! Wave your chibi banners proudly and say 'THIS IS RIGHT!"

As you can see by the voting those with the most votes get more screen time...save for the sailor senshi they just to funny to come up with ideas for

So its up to you what I write! Harem means I have a lot of people to come up with ideas for and I can/will do that if you degree it...but you may notice Kos-Mos is planning and plotting meaning more time for her! So...um...that's it.


	10. Its not the love boat

Standard Disclaimer

I Zentrodie am now a college graduate!! So soon, hopefully, I'll have a stable job that allows for me to make a formal time to write instead of whenever the opportunity arises.

Hope you guys, I'm assuming most of you are guys so if I offend you sorry ladies, still like this odd creation of mine and continue to support it.

Lots of things happening in it but they seem to be still easily under control. Remember all suggestions, requests, ideas are welcome, just email them to me at zentrodie-at-secondimpact-dot-com

(This is how it starts you know?)

What We Make Of It

Chapter 10- A Meeting at Sea

-or-

It's not the love boat

Gendo hated a lot of things in life. Well Gendo hated just about everything in life. Aside from the ability to be an asshole and piss off the human race, he DID hate everything. But on his list of things he'd rather have Kozo do, which was very long by now, the annual stockholder meeting was one chore he couldn't pass off.

Yes Nerv had become a multinational corporation to make up for its inability to generate cash. Had Gendo known of Misato's web-page he'd have used his son to generate funds, but being the father he was, none at all, he didn't know his son's ability to draw in a female crowd. So sitting in a room filled with people he'd promised the same thing to, that again being his son's hand in marriage, he really wasn't looking forward to today's lecture.

Taking his seat at the head of the table and adjusting his glasses, as he felt necessary, "Would you all kindly take your seats and be quiet?" Oh that's another thing Gendo hated, acting nice to those same stockholders. "We'll get this meeting started."

The assembled men, and two ladies, sat around the table and glared at Gendo. They had been promised a suitable husband for their daughters, or in the two ladies case themselves, but Gendo kept postponing the arrangement.

The first of the men to speak was the leader of the Sakuraba kimono outlet. As the third highest stockholder, Gendo personally promised the Sakuraba group a male to marry his daughter Aoi. 'I was so happy about this I even paid that manga author to make a story about it. Damn freak took to many liberties with it, but still I want my lovely Aoi wed!' the old man cried to himself as he cleared his throat gaining Gendo's attention. Not wanting the other stockholders to think him odd for requesting a husband in exchange for his money he covered, "Gendo before we start I want you to tell me when I'll get my end of out deal."

Soun Tendo, having one daughter married, had hopes of adding a second more stable coupling to his family. 'Nabiki would do well with this man as a husband,' he thought as his face looked on casually. "Yes Gendo, you've made me a promise that I'd like fulfilled soon as well."

'Shit it's going to be like this is it,' Gendo winced inwardly. Looking around at the other men as they all nodded and added their useless two-cents, in Gendo's opinion, to the debate. All of the men Gendo could manipulate easily. 'Tell Sakuraba his daughter is still to fat. Tell Soun he needs prove himself in a tournament, but those two…' Gendo's eyes wafted to the two women that were, next to him, the largest shareholders of Nerv.

Both women had red hair, one kept it short but hidden under a black leather hat, and the others was pinker and she wore hers longer while her face was adorned with a pair of glasses with large lenses. Wearing a large red cape, that the other men thought was odd but didn't say anything, the long haired girl spoke in a demure voice, "Gendo, we've waited long enough for what you said would be ours. We want it now, and were ready to sell all of our stock if you need incentive to move."

'The Misu sisters,' Gendo wanted to cry. Those two girls had him by his recovering privates. 'If they sell all of there stock we'd never be able to function, but how do I tell them Shinji isn't available right now.' By right now Gendo was inferring to the two teams he had working. Team 'Liberation' was a group of lawyers assaulting the marriage proposal for loopholes. Team 'Vindication' was a group of scientists trying to find a way of getting Yui into the entry plug before she arranged the marriage henceforth screwing her husband over in the future. Neither group was making progress. "Now Tira-san I assure you things are…"

The other sister clicked her tongue and looked evilly at the man in the glasses. "We won't hear any more excuses, Gendo-chan." Pulling her hat down further shrouding her eyes, Chocolate was through playing around with the man. "We played along long enough. Its time for you to deliver."

The Misu sisters reasoning for wanting their prize was simple. Shinji's heritage on his mother's side was one of great historical importance. The Ikari lineage had been a long line of powerful mystics, samurai, and shamans. That and each male Ikari was said to posses a certain 'prowess' for things the Misu sisters had a liking for. Had Gendo ever given a damn about his wife's history he'd have known, but being the neglecting idiot he was, he never attending Yui's family gatherings.

Soon the meeting degenerated into an all out screaming match of men demanding Gendo fulfill his end of his promise. Gendo laughed inwardly at the irony that everybody there wanted the same thing but didn't know it. 'I'm so screwed I could be my own father.' Slamming his gavel against the desk. "Order everybody I'll get to that issue after we talk about the coloring of Unit-02, it can't be black for some reason."

Before the group could bicker and complain, as people who don't really know what's going on tend to do, the door opened. Walking in the room with a plate of crackers and a kettle of tea, Washu smiled wickedly at the group. Still in her child form, Washu had heard the whole debate, and after some hacking had learned of Gendo's manipulating of the board of directors. "Grandpa I brought the tea as you asked."

"Grandpa! Who the devil is the child Ikari? How can you be a grandfather if you only have one son!?" The men started yelling over the top of each other, the Misu sisters just glared at Gendo as each checked for their weaponry. 'We'll have to talk to him after the meeting.'

As Washu smiled devilishly at her created havoc, Gendo tried to tell the others that she was just one of his co-workers children and had taken to calling him that as a joke. Nobody found it funny or believable.

(I do think Washu would do that, don't you?)

Flying towards the Pacific fleet and their mission objective, Misato had the urge to scream bloody murder. Her plan for a nice relaxing, if not romantic, trip with Shinji had been ruined almost at the start. Shinji's company was one boy he was friends with what appeared to be a drooling problem, Sasami who refused all manner of bribes to abstain from coming, and Kos-Mos who claimed she was ordered by Fuyutsuki to go as a guardian.

'Kami-sama why do you hate me so much?' Misato thought as she peered over he shoulder back into the passenger cabin. Touji sat behind her seat and was ogling Kos-Mos who was seated on Shinji's right clasping his arm in hers, 'Afraid of flying my ass, I've seen that damn 'girl' fly on her own!' And on Shinji's left with her head on his shoulder in mock sleep was Sasami. "How are you kids doing back there?"

Having just met Misato that day, Touji wanted to pound Shinji into the dirt for not inviting him over to meet her sooner. "I'm doing great Misato-san! How are you doing on this lovely trip?" Touji attempted to twist his head three hundred and sixty degrees to see Misato, but as he couldn't he just sprained his neck.

Pulling tighter on Shinji, Kos-Mos turned from the window to face the older woman. "I am fine, but Shinji seems to have lost weight since I've last seen him. Have you been neglecting to care for him?" Honestly Kos-Mos was on cloud nine. She hadn't been with her master in days and it was killing her. 'But now I get to spend a good deal of time with him…and I'll repay him for his kindness.'

"I'm fine Kos-Mos-san, I've just been exercising more than usual so I've lost a bit of fat," Shinji said to calm Kos-Mos. Looking at Kos-Mos Shinji's internal feeling of shame kicked in again. 'She's terrified of being up here! She's clinging so tightly and its my fault that she's here.' Looking up at Misato, and trying not to worry about the growing coldness in his fingers, "Are we almost there Misato?"

'Why couldn't it just be him and me?' Misato wanted to know as she informed the three noticeably awake passengers that they'd be arriving within the next fifteen minutes. The forth passenger, Sasami, was content to snuggle against her now confirmed loving to-be husband. Their talking the previous day about each other completely swept Sasami's heart into Shinji's hand. 'He's suffered so much, yet he's still so nice. Washu thank you so much!'

Touji looked out his window to see an old fleet of battleships. "That's our destination?" His voice was clearly showing disappointment. 'Bet Kensuke would like it but he lost the coin toss.' As both boys wanted to go with Shinji and make some estimates on where to start the betting pool figures at, Touji and Kensuke opted to use a coin toss to see who got the last available seat on the helicopter.

Shinji however was more inclined to like the vision. "Wow there is so many of them!" While not having Kensuke's obsession for military craft, Shinji was still impressed by the sheer volume of ships sent to escort the latest Evangelion and its pilot.

Tempted to 'wake up' from her nap to see the fleet Shinji sounded so excited about, Sasami chose not to and to further bury her body against his. Kos-Mos noticed this act and, "Jurai-kun, I believe you're making a fool of yourself."

Blushing softly, Sasami's eyes opened and she sat up straight. Giving a fake stretch, all to give Shinji a little show, Sasami lightly rapped herself on the head. "Sorry, but the ride was so smooth fell asleep Shinji-sama."

Mentally Touji was doing his best to take Kensuke's instructions into mind. He failed, as he looked at Kos-Mos fold her hands under her bust that's when thinking officially stopped for Touji. 'This trip is going to be great! Hope the new pilot is a girl too.' With that thought the helicopter started its final decent.

(Gee wonder if the new pilot is a girl?)

As she readied the syringe Ritsuko looked at her unknowing test subject. "So you've been spending time with Maya lately?" Knowing full well that the subject had been, and it irked Ritsuko to no end as it was something she wished to do. 'Well just gives me more reason to do this.'

Sitting at full attention, Rei was looking at the needle with a tiny bit of fear. Sliding her latest manga under the pillow provided. "Yes, Ibuki-san has been most informative and helpful to me as of late." Rei's voice now had lost the sheer power it had before when she was under the influence of Slayers. Now it was soft yet confident mixed with a bit of bashful playfulness.

'What the hell has she gotten into this time,' Ritsuko thought as she rolled her eyes. Squirting a little liquid out of the syringe to insure no oxygen was present, Ritsuko turned back to Rei. "Hold out your arm," after Rei had done so, "so what do you and Maya talk about?"

Having guessed by Maya's talks about her 'Ritsuko Senpai' that said doctor had a thing for the young tech, Rei smiled inwardly. Having adapted to Teletha "Tessa" Testarossa from her latest read, Rei was not only willing, but also happy to make a little havoc in the lives of others to further her goal. "She lent me some new manga and anime to watch for my goal of reminding Shinji to whom he should belong."

Noting the tiny smirk on Rei's face a tiny fear blossomed in Ritsuko's chest. Did Maya tell Rei something that was best left unknown? "Well that was nice of her. Did you do anything else?" Softly poking the tip of the needle into Rei's forearm and injecting the girl with the chemical, Ritsuko hoped the answer was no.

The smile widening Rei answered, "She lent me some odd books about pleasing your lover. Do you know where she got those books Akagi-san?" Rei's tone all but shouted out that she knew exactly where the books had originated and their purpose. 'Serves her right for making me stay behind to do some stupid tests when I could be with Shinji.'

Avoiding eye contact by looking wildly around the room, Ritsuko was at a loss for words. "I wouldn't really know what Maya would be doing with books like that. She doesn't have a boyfriend from what I could tell." Heading back to her desk, Ritsuko threw the empty syringe away in the trash. Hoping to derail the current topic of conversation, "Are you feeling the affects of the feline adaptively serum Rei?"

Before Rei could answer warmth spread from her arm throughout her body. Heat permeated her whole body. It wasn't a painful heat but a soothing calming heat. Rei could hear and see things so much clearer now. That could have been, if she could see herself, from her new set of ears and the alterations to her pupils. "I think I felt something Akagi-san nya."

Ritsuko looked at Rei, looked harder, put some droplets in her eyes and looked again. 'SHIT! It gave her cat ears and her eyes! Her…her' Ritsuko's eyes caught sight of Rei's hands as the blue haired girl noticed them too, 'her nails too! Oh hell.' Not only did the serum give the added benefits of increased sight, hearing, and reflexes it augmented Rei's body. "Damn I guess I had to much feline DNA in that one."

Flexing her fingers and the claws they now possessed Rei's eyes darted over to Ritsuko, who looked oddly like a mouse to her now. Liking her chops and furrowing her eyebrows, "I think its time I test these out."

Ritsuko ran for her life out of her office and into the hallways screaming. 'I knew I should have asked Washu for help first!' The other personnel just saw Ritsuko running and Rei on all fours keeping up with her, just your normal day in the bowels of the most secret and well-known organization on the planet.

(So Rei's a cat girl right now…you weren't expecting that to happen?)

Having his hat blown off his head and his frantic chase after it wasn't what Touji really wanted to do. Touji wanted to impress both of the older women that Shinji had with him, Sasami as well, but he figured Sasami was already smitten with Shinji. "Come back here!" the jock yelled at the inanimate object that was his hat.

Following at a leisurely pace behind the boy, Misato wanted to push him off the deck due to the embarrassment. Kos-Mos wanted to grab Shinji and run, Sasami just clenched Shinji's hand, and Shinji…Shinji was confused. "Touji maybe you shouldn't be running like that," the smaller boy said as he saw a figure in Touji's path.

Touji's frantic dash came to an abrupt halt as his hat burst into flames. Trying to stop his forward momentum and succeeding only in falling down, Touji was lucky he didn't wet himself. "What the hell was that?" he tried to say when all that came out was a screech.

Before the boy, and the now assembled others, stood a girl of what appeared fourteen years of age. Still dressed in her cape and cowl, but dawning a flowing black dress in exchange for the suit of living flame, Asuka shrugged her shoulders. "Was that hat yours? It was ugly anyway."

"Bitch! What the hell did you do to my special hat?" Touji fumed as he got up to his feat. Marching the remaining distance to the as of yet unknown Princess of Hell, Touji was the closest person when a sudden breeze revealed Asuka's taste in human undergarments, that being black silk.

True to form, Asuka slapped Touji across the face, "Hentai! What are you doing looking at my panties?" Walking over towards Shinji, Asuka went to do the same to him only to have her slapping hand caught by Kos-Mos. "And what are you doing preventing me from distributing punishment?" Asuka flared.

Kos-Mos just pointed towards Sasami whose hand was covering Shinji's eyes. "He didn't see your unique taste in apparel." Kos-Mos's words were as cold and hard as some of the metal that made her form. 'Nobody touches my master like that while I'm around.'

"So you're the Second Child?" Misato asked as the sudden dread started to take its usual place whenever Shinji met a new girl. 'What is with all these freaks showing up! Angels, robots, whatever the hell Sasami is, and now this goth freak?' Extending her hand to Asuka, "I'm Misato Katsuragi I'll be your commanding officer."

Shaking Misato's hand with the strength Misato had only felt in grown men, Asuka smiled. "Pleasure to meet you I'm Asuka Langley Souryu. So which of these…people" Asuka could tell by sensing their auras that only the boys and Misato were human, "is the Third Child?" She was begging her father at this point to make sure it wasn't the boy who was now getting to his feat. 'That pig wouldn't make a fitting servant to rule this planet with me.'

Sasami lowered her hand as Shinji spoke. "That would be me Asuka-san, pleasure to meet you as well," taking his place below others on the respect meter as usual, Shinji bowed low to the new pilot, much to Asuka's joy and displeasure of the other women. Standing up right Shinji tried to emulate what he saw Asuka do, believing it was expected of him. He extended his hand to shake hers.

'He's not to bad on the eyes, seems a bit meek though.' Asuka's eyes surveyed Shinji as she shook his hand. Probing into his soul she hit something, something hard. 'He…he's got so much inner power! This boy could truly help me rule this planet, as well as kill those pesky angels!' Asuka's roving eyes didn't go over blindly to Sasami, who coughed softly to break Asuka of her canvassing of Shinji's body. "Seem a little dull but we can work on that."

Doing his best to insure everybody thought he was totally stupid, Touji promptly walked over to Asuka. "What the hell did you hit me for?" His opinion of the red head ruined forever by his accident-prone nature, and inability to learn from mistakes.

Asuka turned to face the annoying boy, "That little love tap was payment for the view. It's quite the bargain." Asuka flaunted as she set her palm to her waist and her cape blew in the wind.

Grabbing the sides of his button up jeans, Touji tore off said clothing. "You want a view! Here's a GOOD view." Pulling this boxers down and freeing the beast within, Sasami gasped and quickly turned away, Kos-Mos shook her head in disgust, while Shinji offered a prayer to whatever deity was listening. Misato just thought to herself, 'That proves Shinji's father had something done to him…hardly anything there on that boy.'

Giving the group their first taste of her powers, Asuka's eyes turned red and flame shot out of them. "You pervert!" the Hellion said as she recoiled her fist and let loose her fury squarely into Touji's stomach. The force of the blow not only took Touji off his feat but sent him fifty yards down the flight deck and into the net used to catch planes.

"What the hell was that?" Misato and Kos-Mos said unable to restrain themselves after the show of sheer power a young delicate woman shouldn't have.

Smiling widely as she turned back to the wide-eyed audience, Asuka took note of Shinji, her eyes hazing over as Shinji's eyes bore into hers. "What else do you expect from the Princess of Hell?"

Sasami took that as her queue to faint into Shinji's arms, which she did. Having seen angels already, Shinji hadn't been as surprised. Misato's wanting to weep increased dramatically. 'She's a demon! A DEMON! Why can't we have another normal pilot!'

(So that was Asuka's introduction. I think it went rather well.)

'Wow that girl just sent the Suzuhara boy flying,' Shion thought as she ate another handful of popcorn. With Shinji and Kos-Mos gone, Shion's 'to-do' list was very small. Kos-Mos's ulterior reason for going with Shinji was to find some fodder for the replacement of Misato as his guardian.

Hearing her door open and the short red haired genius from outside of time walking in, Shion altered her attention. "Washu-chan," Shion knew better than to not call her that, "What brings you to my office?" Hoping it wasn't to join her in watching over Kos-Mos, Shion smiled softly.

With her trademark evil grin proudly on her face, the dainty goddess jumped onto one of Shion's extra chairs. "Having fun watching your hopeful husband?" Washu could read Shion like a book, that and the reflection from Shion's glasses gave a great view of the computer screen.

"I don't know what your talking about Washu-chan, I'm just making sure that Kos-Mos's audio/visual connections are functional." It was a good lie, Shion had to tell herself that. Seeing how Washu wasn't buying it however, Shion changed her tune. "Why are you here?"

Finding her welcome not so warm anymore, Washu stopped playing. "I want to know where Sasami's fiancé lives." Loving the look of anger sprout on Shion's face after declaring Sasami as Shinji's owner, Washu wanted to laugh. "I want to drop off the wedding present to them before they get back from their trip."

With her palm to her cheek Shion shook her head in a fake quandary. "I don't know Washu-chan. From what I heard the Commander saying, the girl was to be executed on her return if she didn't disavow the whole thing." Turning back to the screen Shion just saw a mass of people slammed close together. 'Must be a small elevator…is that Kos-Mos's hand…is she! SHE IS!"

"Shion are you ok? Your nose is bleeding. Shion?" Washu called out to Shion who suddenly went red and started hemorrhaging from her nose. Unable to discern the image from Shion's glasses anymore, Washu watched as Shion dabbed her nose with a tissue. "So are you going to tell me?"

Wanting very much to have some private time, Shion wrote down the Katsuragi apartment's location and ushered Washu out of her office. 'Guess Shion has other business to attend to,' Washu thought jovially. 'Now to get Aisha over there and to link our apartments together.' Sasami was going to live with her until she got married, it would look bad for the future leader of the known universe to live with her husband before marriage.

(Can't keep a good scientist down. But which scientist the semi-human or the goddess?)

Looking around the small cafeteria Shinji wondered who the semi-shaved guy was. 'He seems to know Misato.' Shinji didn't doubt that Kaji had known Misato, he expected such a beautiful woman to have a boyfriend after all. "How do you know my name Kaji-san?"

Looking around the table, Kaji really didn't know what to expect. One boy seemed to have his mouth wired shut. Misato was fawning over the other boy, who didn't seem to notice. And two other girls that didn't work for Nerv were there. 'I'm getting out of touch if I can't follow all this,' Kaji thought with some bitterness. "Well Shinji-kun you're very famous in this business. The boy who piloted with no training and killed three angels."

Nervously looking at Kos-Mos, who hadn't taken her eyes off him since the elevator incident, where she said she thought it was the break lever. "Honestly Kaji-san Kos-Mos killed the second angel." Shinji still hadn't apologized to Kos-Mos and wished to be alone with her to do so he didn't want to embarrass her.

Kaji, taking Kos-Mos into view, was terrified of what Shinji said. 'If that's true that machine is one of the most powerful being on earth.' Hearing Asuka say something about it not being that impressive reminded him of the pact he made with the girl.

Seeing Kaji for the first time in years brought many bad memories back to the surface in Misato's mind. Watching a young girl, or young demoness it seemed fawning over him didn't do much to help her mood. "So Kaji have a thing for young girls now do you?"

Diverting her attention from her attempts to scan the unearthly girls' minds, Asuka spoke before Kaji could. "Kaji sold his soul to me for information about some dirty old men. He's my foot stool." With a degree of happiness, Asuka could feel Misato's joy increase with that comment. 'She's evil too, we can be friends.'

"Yeah her servant," Kaji muttered under his breath. He hadn't believed Asuka's claim when she presented it to him. Maybe the flaming pen HAD been a good clue but he wasn't ready to believe it, now he was sans-soul. But Kaji couldn't let Misato get the last laugh so, "So Shinji-kun is Misato still wild in bed?"

All color drained from Misato's face. 'SHIT! I have been sleeping in his futon and that is probably against regulations!' Kos-Mos had her proof and back in Tokyo-3, Shion was preparing to copy the response for her use against Misato in her case to claim Shinji as hers.

With a hint of red in his cheeks, Shinji didn't want to admit that it was his fault Misato's room was ruined. He was responsible for Kos-Mos after all. "She moves around a lot in her sleep, but I think its because she's not used to the change in rooms."

Kaji's face drained of color then. 'WHAT! She IS sleeping in his bed! That was a joke!' Looking at the guilty look in Misato's face, Kaji felt betrayed. Sure they hadn't been a couple in a long time, and it was his fault they broke up, but like every man he expected Misato to wait forever for him to come back. "So why did she change rooms? Hers get destroyed or something?"

Speaking up for fiancé, Sasami said, "So that's what you meant when you said Misato-san and Kos-Mos's fight was responsible for the destruction in the apartment!" Sasami was relieved to know the full accounting now. It wasn't proper for the servants to sleep with the master. Kos-Mos didn't care they could edit the file for their purposes, which was what Shion was doing at that very moment.

Touji was unconscious the thought of sleeping in the same room with Misato was too much for him to take in. Twin trails of blood leaked from his nose as he lay on the cold floor oddly nobody noticed this. As the uncomfortable silence kicked in, Shinji believing it was his comments that caused it tried to kick-start the talks again. "So Asuka, you're Eva is here as well?"

Glad to be the focus of the talk, Asuka beamed, "Yes, but its not like I need one to kill angels. I could do it with my bare hands, unlike you humans." Looking leveling into Shinji's eyes, Asuka was enraptured by the cooling blue of them. Blue as you can imagine is a hard color to come by in hell. "I could it to you though."

Acting before the others could react, Asuka's hand gripped Shinji's wrist and she was off. Flying from their current battleship to the carrier of Asuka's vehicle of ungodly might.

(Why doesn't anybody notice Touji?)

"I didn't know it was going to be red," Shinji said as he was dropped unceremoniously in front of Unit-02. Now most humans would have been upset at being dropped on their backs, but Shinji took it as standard. "Asuka?"

Ending her flight by landing on the Unit's head, Asuka's hand swept the length of the behemoth. "Can you believe they wanted it black? Red is such a better color, don't you agree?"

Shinji had to admit, Unit-02 looked very good in red. "It's a very good color scheme Asuka-san." A sudden tremor sent the boy tumbling to his knees. "What was that?"

Her demonic senses tingling, Asuka knew what it was. "An angel! I finally get to kill an angel!" Her whole life Asuka had anticipated this moment. Her triumphant battle against the tiny winged humanoids. 'Why the humans made such big contraptions for tiny angels I don't know.'

His sense of duty taking over his mind, "Asuka are you sure its an angel?" Looking around Shinji didn't know what they should do. He didn't have a plug suit and the Eva was technically Asuka's after all. "Should we get ready to fight it?"

Sensing the power level of her opponent was far greater than she anticipated, Asuka changed her plan. "This is a test to see if you're worthy of being my vassal, get in that thing." Asuka couldn't very well tell the human she was a little intimidated by the creature.

"But we need plug suits." Shinji informed the demoness as she jumped down next to him. He didn't question why Asuka suddenly changed her tone about what she was going to do.

Remembering that the Nerv-Germany people said about plug suits, Asuka blinked and to Shinji's stunned eyes she was donning a red form fitting plug suit. "There, I'm ready what about you?" Asuka said as she commanded the Eva to eject the entry plug.

"If your worried about your cloths just go naked," Asuka said offhandedly. Demons didn't wear cloths so Asuka didn't think anything of it. Now female demons did so that was why she got upset, that and her partially human heritage. Seeing how Shinji blushed and looked at his feet, "Fine here," materializing another plug suit like her own she tossed it to Shinji, "now hurry."

Rushing to the hallway, Shinji quickly shed his clothing and donned the female plug suit. 'I know this is going to hurt…but I have to do it.' Pushing the pressurization button, Shinji felt the material restrict, and restrict it did. From the entry plug of the Eva, and back on the previous ship, everybody heard Shinji's pain filled howl.

(You ever try shrink wrapping that thing? No didn't think so.)

As the pain subsided and he eased himself a safe distance from Asuka, he saw the girl powering up the Evangelion. 'Wonder how much about this she knows,' the boy wondered. The answer was not that much.

'Maybe I should tell him this is part of the test to,' Asuka thought before she opted to just steal the information from his brain. Shinji felt a tiny push on his mind for a second, and then Asuka really started working. "You ready to show me your worth boy?"

Believing he had no such thing as 'worth,' Shinji just nodded. "I'll do my best." Even though he said that, Asuka didn't do anything else. They sat there as another tremor rocked the boat. "Asuka-san?"

"Well I'm waiting, do what it is you do in this thing!" Asuka commanded ignoring Shinji's question. You couldn't expect her to actually tell Shinji that she still didn't fully understand how to pilot the device. Taking orders from Asuka, Shinji timidly gripped the controls from around Asuka's body.

In the waters surrounding the boat, Gaghiel was having a lovely bath. He didn't have bath toys in a long time and now he had toy boats to play with. While he loved watching them move about the bath water, he really loved watching them sink. So he sank another and watched the tiny dots jump off it and try to get back to the surface. Sensing somebody had intruded on his bath, an older lady, he was a little miffed. 'I want privacy when I bathe!'

Asuka watched in mild shock as the Angel seemed to be destroying the humans' ships. "Well what are you waiting for? Go kill it."

Not being Aquaman, Shinji had a little problem seeing into the water. "It's coming, brace yourself Asuka-san," Shinji said as mind hardened a little for battle. The command, something she never received before, caused Asuka to feel oddly good.

Jumping at the peeping-tom, Gaghiel lashed out in a big hissy fit. Seeing an Angel for the first time, Asuka knew fear. Cringing backward into Shinji's chest, Asuka was ashamed of her actions. 'Why didn't I study the previous angels to be prepared for this?'

Seeing his opponent flying right at him, Shinji engaged Unit-02's progressive knife and let the vile beast tear itself in half. Gaghiel didn't know that knives, especially electric knives, were really bad things so didn't attempt to avoid it. Impaling itself on the blade and killing itself, Gaghiel went home crying to his mother about the sick perverted lady. Kami-sama said she'd file a complaint

(So I used a modified version of the Manga's battle…)

Triumphantly descending the stairs to the waiting deck, Asuka held her fingers out in a 'V' formation. "Yes I did kick that things ass did I not?" Her ego was further stroked by Misato's congratulations. The others were to busy looking at other pilots decent.

Bursting into a gale of laughter Touji just pointed at Shinji. "Dude you have breasts!" One part of Touji's mind said he'd seen Shinji like that before, but couldn't quite understand why.

Rushing to Shinji's side, Sasami threw her arms around him. "My hero! Shinji are you ok? Did you get hurt? Why are you in drag? Was that your scream?"

Prying Sasami away from her master, Kos-Mos scanned the plug suit. Noticing a wealth of constriction, Kos-Mos blushed. "Shinji-sama I believe you should take that suit off now before you damage yourself."

Seeing her newly appointed vassal being surrounded by others, Asuka pushed away from Kaji who had stared brushing the LCL out of her hair. "What do you think your doing to my vassal?"

"Vassal?" Misato asked as she pressed the button to depressurize Shinji's suit, much to his embarrassment. "What are you talking about Asuka?"

Scooping Shinji up in her arms, Asuka turned to the assembled. "This mortal is mine. His life is mine. He fought that angel to prove himself worthy of being my compatriot." Truly a vassal in hells terms was more attuned to husband, but Asuka didn't know this.

Soon the yelling started, and the fighting, and then Shinji wondered where he clothing was. Nobody said anything about that as the ship entered Tokyo-3 harbor and the dead corpse of the angel filled the market place with fish for the next few years. Shinji's last thought before Asuka leapt off the ships bow with her still in his arms was, 'what in the world is happening now?'

(And that my friends is the end of this Chapter)

Author notes

Yup another chapter done. Hope Asuka fans aren't upset with that little introduction. I'll do my best with this oddity of mine. My only request is that you review Out of Disaster It is nearing its end and I'd really like some feed back on the later chapters.

Rei's manga of the day is Full Metal Panic.

Have a happy holiday season and be merry

Ja Mata

Zentrodie (zentrodie-at-secondimpact-dot-com)

Updated battle lines!!

Those siding with Kos-Mos: Xeo, Konos the Grey, ScienceMonkey, Nicknack, DarkChuchuo, Sybian Machine, Final Max, Crrot, Sol bandus, Pandomine, Vaurnut, NickNack, Soulless, Sleepy Kitty, Deus, renzokuken-sama, James Ray Edwards, KevinEc, Alpha Draconis1, a fan3, Science Monkey, Darklion74, Serpent Spy, Soulless, Jin Kazemeijin, Kyubi, CheeseKing, James Ray Edwards, "The Man in the Pallid Mask" Total: 29

Those wanting a Harem: deinku, VCR, Jon Cook (w/o Asuka), mc2rpg, Positron(for now), Hank, Finalfantasyxii, chan,ken, kins of Ireland, Mordamir, Kman, Valtiel, Epsilon, ShadowCascade, EchoGarrote, Vic, Frank the Bunny (Don't chain me up!), NateGold, Gord, Slake-Sama, Zemzaba, TheWickerMan, Dark Anomaly, Bobby, (Unknown mass), Masumune, Variable Creatue, Tyson Total: 27

Those siding with Asuka: Kusinagi, Nova10, Vibious, Final Max, Kuracao, Razial the Damned, Redshadow64, xXx, Supereva0102, Asuka-fan, SOMEBODY, Supereva01, Knighsshadow, WarpWizard, Dude, Dragon's death, NefCanuck, Uniden, A/S Fan X 2 Total: 20

Those siding with Rei: Otaku-Dman, Vibious, SoulFire, Macavity the Mystery Cat, Dark Machine, Philg, NickNack, Azurewind, Redmage2k, Rei-aka-Ayanami-chan, jennyjennie, rgreat, Katfum, Oni-Otaku, wiseman, Crimson Arrow, Player0, GoldmonX, Mak Total: 19

Those siding with Blue haired girlsOrganized Kaos, Trikster , Kima Prideflame, Nick McC, Shinzaku, M.E.S.S Total: 6

Those siding with Sasami: Doggystyle, razzor15, Vaurnut, Golden Kitsune, Total: 4

Those siding with Mana: Steve Vader, Chewy, Rusty Knight Production Total: 3

Those siding with Shion Uzuki: Remenants, Final Max, Golden Kitsune Total : 3

Those siding with Misato: Kippenberger, JVR Total: 2

Those siding with Yui Ikari: Zang-Sama, Player 0 total: 2

Those siding with Hikari: Amathyst Wind Total: 1

And there you go! The updated battle lines have Kos-Mos still beating all contenders but the Harem army has made a massive surge in the assault against the Zohar infused android!

Asuka has pulled one league ahead of Rei and Yui has gotten her SECOND vote! Kos-Mos is now planning on her way of stealing Shinji away from Misato and has good way of doing it. Will she?

Its up to you, the voting influences how I plan on writing this…and yes those are the Misu sisters from Bakuratsu (Sorcerer) Hunters.

On side note, some of you may notices a lot of votes missing from harem, that came from the suddenness and seemingly same person who voted of it. If you're not all the same person I apologize and a simple email to me will get your vote added in correctly (sorry but that's the price I have to pay for allowing anonymous votes )


	11. So she's not a nice princess

Standard Disclaimer

Well this chapter is coming to you late as somebody finally ratted me out for having my mst of TOILI and I was semi-banned from fanfiction net. Well I guess I should have expected it, but I'm still a little upset about it.

Well to late to be upset so I hope you enjoy this. I'm still looking for work, unemployment is fairly depressing now, so I'm doing my best to stay positive and keep working on my writing. I'm sure you're not here to read my rambling so…

-This is the end…the end of the story…no wait its just the beginning-

What We Make of It

Chapter 11 Accepting Changes

Or

Why not to piss off Princess from Hell

Now for the few of you that opted to not read the previous chapter, I'll reiterate what happened. A lot of stuff and things that ended with a very happy princess from the fiery pits of hell taking a human into her arms and flying off into Tokyo-3. Said princess's name was Asuka, and the meat puppet, I mean human was Shinji Ikari. Now Asuka had all the intention of taking her new vassal to a nice new and secluded dwelling and making good on what she saw on all the Earth television she had watched.

But as Asuka had a small liking, by small it is incensed to mean obsession, with plushies. The cute fuzzy little stuffed dolls of animals, anime characters, or small buildings were one of mankind's greatest creations to Asuka. So when she saw a shop that sold nothing but plushies, she dropped her vassal and went into the story to acquire her new belongings, knowing she'd be forgiven. 'These humans would surly give them to somebody as great as I am,' she figured as she proceeded to gather large handfuls.

Shinji however felt the abandonment from his new compatriot, and as he does with all things accepted it as his just punishment for being a terrible person. 'I guess she just wanted somebody to give her directions if she got lost.' With no money, and more importantly no cloths, Shinji had no idea what he could do to get home. Getting a lot of looks as he covered his shame with both hands, and he walked with his back to walls, Shinji made his way towards his apartment.

"Shinji-kun is that you?" a surprised voice called from inside a store which had nice glass windows that gave those inside a nice view of said pilots behind. Hikari who was doing her weekly grocery shopping was very shocked to see the boy who now possessed her heart in his hand, not that he knew that. "Why are you naked?"

His head spinning so fast it almost made a sonic boom, Shinji's eyes widened in surprise and abstract terror. "Hikari-san, I um…about this. It was a Nerv procedure that went oddly and…I need to get home but…my plugsuit got destroyed." Shinji would have kept rambling about things, but his face was so red from embarrassment, that and Hikari's eyes had a nasty habit of dropping south of the border that she wanted to get him inside someplace quickly.

'His place doesn't seem that bad,' Hikari thought not knowing about all the other women that at this moment were racing across the streets of Tokyo-3 in pursuit of their lost pilot. Heading back into the store, Hikari bought a cheap packet of boxers and some shorts, which she handed to the grateful Shinji. Blushing at the memory of what Shinji tried his best to hide, the bashful class rep fumbled with her hands, looking down, "I'll walk you home just in case anything else happens."

Overjoyed at the slight protection from the elements that he now had, Shinji couldn't have Hikari herself putting out on his account. "But Hikari-san you did so much for me already, I don't want you to have to do anymore." Then he realized that she bought him the clothing he was wearing, 'I have to repay her for them!' Not hearing Hikari's mumbling about how she wanted to go to his place anyway, Shinji continued, "Well I guess if you come with me I can give you the money for these." He gestured to his adornments.

By this time of day the sun was beginning to set on the city and it hid the spreading blush that fell upon the freckled face of one Hikari Hokari. 'He wants me to come over, he wants me to come over,' several scenarios started to play out in her mind, all of them ending with her very happy and the solid love interest of said boy who was now gone.

Shaking her head of her daydream and finding Shinji no longer standing by her she looked around. "Shinji-kun? Where are you Shinji-kun?" A brief shadow blocked out the sun and Hikari saw a white and blue blur flying with what looked like Shinji over its shoulder. 'Well son of a bitch.'

-I guess somebody got impatient and took matters into her own hands…-

As Kos-Mos reassured Shinji that they were perfectly safe as they flew back to their apartment, Misato was walking into said apartment. "Now Sasami we both know Kos-Mos is perfectly capable of finding Shinji and bringing him back." Having to console the sniffling would-be wife of her blossoming crush was hard for Misato. 'Why the hell do I have to be the care giver to this kid?'

Wiping off the few stray tears as they formed in her eyes, Sasami looked timidly at Misato. "Are you sure she'll be able to find him? What if that girl did something to him?" Knowing that Asuka had something planned for her man, Sasami didn't have a very favorable impression of her, Kos-Mos was fine as she was just a servant and one can't have servants that hate their masters. 'But that girl…Asuka, calling my Shinji her vassal what was that about?'

Misato knew that currently Asuka wasn't a problem. On the drive back home she'd gotten a phone call from Ritsuko. Said doctor, who was nursing a number of claw wounds, said that Nerv had Asuka in custody. 'Apparently she tried to steal a few hundred dollars worth of plush toys and the police came after her. She said she was with Nerv and they called for us. Now I have her sitting in my lab and going through a few tests. This girl isn't human!' That was when Misato told her friend that Asuka was a half-demon and the phone went dead, much like Ritsuko's mind at the moment.

Walking the still visually worried Sasami into the kitchen, Misato was trying her best to ignore the grinning red haired scientist already at the table. "Asuka's at Nerv right now so you don't have to worry about her doing something to Shinji." What Asuka did to Shinji before she left him however, Misato didn't want to think about either. 'Here I was hoping the new pilot would show up and Shinji wouldn't have to work so hard and he and I could…' Misato chose not to think about that now, as she had an audience.

"So the new pilot is the princess of hell, this planet never ceases to amaze me," Washu said with a laugh as she poured herself and Sasami a cup of tea. Ryo-oki was on the table munching on a carrot and doing her best to avoid the odd bird that tried hitting on her. "Our sister really did do a number on this planet."

Sipping her tea, Sasami looked at Washu with a look of complexity. "Sister, but I thought you only had two sisters, Tsunami and Tokimi." Knowing about the three goddesses that created and ruled the galaxy was another secret that few knew. But being the future embodiment of Tsunami, Sasami was a little more enlightened than the rest.

Watching Misato leave the room and head into the bathroom, Washu wanted to laugh all the more. 'That girl has a lot of pent up emotion. To bad for her I wont' let Sasami share that boy.' Turning back to Sasami, who was now petting the mewing cabbit, "Didn't you ever wonder about the fact about Angels and Demons Sasami?" Sasami nodded meekly, seeing how her beloved was fighting angels and Asuka was a demon. "Our forth sister. We kinda kicked her out when she went Goth on us and started dating Satan. She got weird so we told her to make her own place and stay there. Hence she created Earth."

Pounding her fist into the palm of her other hand, Sasami remembered. "Ok, that makes a lot of sense now." It didn't really make sense to anything that wasn't a pans-dimensional being, but we'll let them have their discussion. "Oh, what brings you here today Washu-chan?" Sasami asked as she realized Washu didn't live there, have a key to the door, or really say anything about why she had arrived.

Knowing Sasami wasn't going to be really happy about her reasons for being there, Washu handed Sasami a cookie. 'Maybe a little sweet will make this easier.' However Sasami had stopped being seven a few hundred years ago so it didn't have the exact effect Washu wanted. "I'm here to take you home Sasami," the diminutive genus finally said.

Sasami didn't get upset, she didn't cry, she just got stood up, walked to the refrigerator and started gathering materials for supper. As Washu watched the princess start preparing supper, "Sasami did you hear me? I'm hear to take you home." Sure home was only the second closet on the right as Washu had connected a hyperspace jumpgate from her dwelling to the Katsuragi apartment.

"I heard you Washu-chan, but do we have to leave now? How about we eat before walking to the broom closet," Sasami wasn't foolish. She knew it was unladylike to live with ones betrothed before being married. She also knew that Washu had a habit of linking dimensions, 'So if she hasn't already I'll just ask her too.' "Shinji will be coming home soon," she hoped, "and I want to make sure he eats well before he goes back to school tomorrow."

Having put aside-waking Aisha until Shinji had returned because if only one of them woke the Ctarl-Ctarl it wouldn't just serve them it would love them unconditionally, 'I hate that programming but it's the only thing that works!' The tiny terror knew that said programming was causing Kos-Mos a lot of problems, but if a created creature didn't have an anchor upon waking, it caused problems.

Washu smiled, "You know already don't you? That I made a link." To Washu, Sasami was just a bundle of surprises. Sasami acted cute and innocent but would play the most evil pranks on Tenchi and the others before she left back for Jurai. 'She's like a young me!'

Sticking her tongue out and smiling, Sasami said that she took a very educated guess. Returning to her cooking, Sasami later dropped the spatula when the door to the deck opened and she heard steps. "Shinji-sama is home!" Rushing to the living room to find Kos-Mos manhandling, at least to her eyes, her beloved who was still clad in only boxers and shorts, Sasami was pissed. "What did that hussy do to you?"

Washu looked at Shinji then at Kos-Mos, and thought 'Sasami has become her older sister. I'd feel sorry for Shinji if this wasn't so funny to watch.' Needless to say, but I will say it anyway because nothing is normal here, the night was very interesting as Misato rushed out of the bathroom clad only in dripping water at Shinji's arrival, and Kos-Mos did her best to knock the purple haired woman out.

-And if it weren't for Shinji, Kos-Mos would kill a lot of people-

After a tear filled goodbye and a few minutes confusion as Washu and Sasami walked into a closet and vanished, the Katsuragi apartment fell into a semi-peaceful state. Kos-Mos received a call from Shion to return to base, which she begrudgingly did, after instructing Sumomo NOT to leave Shinji's side for any reason. Misato was pissed at that but thought, hey what can a tiny computer do.

Well when Misato went to make her move on Shinji that night, she found out that Sumomo could conduct a lot of electricity. The afterward frizzy haired woman opted not to make any sudden attempts to slide into Shinji's futon. 'Damn pink nightmare nearly gave me a heart attack. Shinji had a great nights sleep that is he would have if he didn't still feel guilty about, just about everything.

In the morning, Misato chose to not wake up in lieu of her heart didn't like the shock it received the previous night, and she had night duty that day. Shinji cooked a meal for her regardless and headed out to school. 'I wonder how Rei is doing today, I haven't heard from her in a while.' Thinking of Rei caused Shinji to feel ashamed. He felt bad for taking advantage of Rei and her complex, not knowing that Rei did care for him and he should have felt honored. 'I bet she's gotten over me and is upset with me for my actions.'

As he made his way onto the school grounds a large number of eyes were upon him. One set belonged to his friends. Friends being a loose term as said friends saw him as a way of making money and getting girls. But Shinji liked them and to him that was all that was needed to be friends. "Dude you'll never believe how the trip went!" Touji mouthed through his still wired shut jaws.

With his computer out and the betting pool opened, Kensuke was ready to start up their little gambling venture. Adding Misato and Asuka's name to the already ballooning list of names that included nearly all of the single girls in their class, a few other classes, and oddly enough a lot of emailed in requests. 'How did they know about this already?' Kensuke thought but hey, the more people added the more money they could make. "Let me guess this Asuka girl is the one that beat the hell out of you?"

"She's a freaking demon! She has burning eyes and everything, but this isn't about her. Shinji's guardian is a TOTAL BABE!" Touji still couldn't get Misato out of his mind. Sure Kos-Mos was attractive, but Touji didn't quite care for the total lack of energy the android put into anything non-Shinji related.

Taking Touji's babbling to be merely his stupidity taking up new avenues of idiocy, Kensuke used the term demon to really mean, a bitch. 'But a bitch can fight for what she wants harder than others so…' He upped Asuka's odds. Listening to more of Touji's recollection of the ocean cruise of doom, Kensuke finished his first attempt at the betting pool. "Touji, we're ready to start, you go announce this to the class and I'll take the money."

Looking for the class-rep, who Touji didn't like knowing was in the pool, the jock wasn't going to take any chances getting caught. With the coast clear, "Ladies and gentlemen. Kensuke and I'd like to inform you of the Ikari-Five hundred," it was Touji's idea to name it that, much to Kensuke's disbelief.

'This isn't a damn race!' he thought as he gathered the moneybox and the betting slips. Seeing more people paying attention to Touji the moment he said Shinji, Kensuke knew this was one of his best ideas yet. Rubbing his hands together, Kensuke saw a bright future for his father's Yakuza men.

"That's right, you can now bet on which one of you lucky ladies gets paired up with Shinji. The odds are going to be updated weekly and the winner will be decided when Shinji tells us." A few girls glared at one another, they all saw the others as competition for the heart of the reclusive pilot. Touji continued as the general murmuring in the classroom gathered, "We all know he isn't capable of lying so there is no worry. Kensuke will take your bets and we wish you all good luck."

Much to Touji's astonishment, and to Kensuke's hopes, the room erupted into a mad panic to see how they stood in the race, and to bet on themselves, in the guys cases they just wanted money or to insure the girl they sought after lost. Many girls were livid to see the odds not in their favor, while others nearly swooned at how the odds chanced them winning.

In the back of the room, four girls gathered around a fifth. Makoto was about to receive a very serious interrogation about how her night with Shinji went. Hence they didn't join the betting as they didn't know if the bet was already over. Usagi was the first to speak, "So Mako-chan how did things go after the study group last week?"

Rei pitched in too, "You jumped at the chance to get him to your place, did anything happen?" As much as they wanted to know the answer, they dreaded it too. If she succeeded there would be no chance for them to get Shinji, and they all wanted to try their hands.

Knowing that she failed miserably at her intended plan, but learning full well that Shinji was the boy she wanted desperately, Makoto opted to try and evade her friends. 'If I can get them to think that I did, then they'll give up and I'll get him at my leisure.' Makoto put her chances way beyond that of the girls at the betting table right now, and she didn't know about Misato, Asuka, Ayanami Rei, ect. "Well he walked me home and commented on how the moon made me look beautiful."

Ami blushed at the thought of Shinji saying that, only she replaced Makoto with herself. Minako wasn't as easy to give up. "So after he was very polite in talking what then?" Sure they knew Makoto was an attractive woman that sold herself short a lot, but if Shinji commented on it they also knew it hit the brown haired cook heart hard.

Twiddling her thumbs, Makoto continued with her recount. "Well we got to my place and he said it was very clean and we started talking about movies and cooking tips." With the majority of the night having been discussed Makoto needed to think of something quick or she'd lose her chance at dissuading her friends.

"Wasn't there a big thunderstorm that night?" Ami asked offhanded having remembered the power going out. Usagi started crying saying that there had been, and reminded all of them about how much she hated thunder. They knew and wanted her to stop crying to Rei tossed her a candy from her satchel to calm the crying future world leader's nerves.

Having an idea, "Yeah, I told him he could stay the night as he didn't have a way home. Then power went out and…" Makoto drawled out her last few lines to add some implication to her last sentence hoping they'd accept it and stop asking questions. 'Well I didn't fib so I hope they buy it.'

Rei's eyes bugged out at hearing Makoto say she had spent the night with Shinji, Ami blushed again and started daydreaming, Usagi just ate her candy not believing Makoto was telling the whole truth, but it was Minako that called her out on it. "Then what happen? Did you fall in the dark and knock yourself out?" her anger at Makoto for supposedly winning created her retort.

"How did you know?" Makoto asked before she realized. Slapping her palm over her mouth as she just let the cat out of the bag. 'Damn it I was so close too.' The collected Senshi let out a sigh of relief and patted Makoto on the back, saying 'she should be thankful she didn't get to hurt by the fall.' In reality they were all thinking Kami-sama for not taking away their chance.

By now Shinji had arrived in the classroom, fully intending to apologize to Rei about his actions regarding her mental state only to find her desk empty. 'Odd I thought she was going to be here today.' Seeing the class go from crazed to quit in a few seconds as the students rushed back to their seats to cover their actions. 'Guess they thought I was the teacher.'

-Will Rei make an appearance? Are cats evil?-

With the previous days insanity over, Gendo was ready to return to being the evil overlord of Nerv and plan to use humanity as per chess pieces. He did, as he thought he would, act in manipulating the stockholders. Sakuraba was told Aoi was still not yet suited for Shinji and needed more training, Soun was told that only a true martial arts master was suited to marry into the family, Il Palazzo was told he had to capture F-city or Excel would go husbandless, and as for the Misu sisters Gendo ran away from them and locked his door. 'Time to be bad,' Gendo thought as he called in the first of his meetings for the day.

Walking across the long corridor lined with many hidden cameras that Gendo used for private viewing, Shion accompanied by Kos-Mos made their way towards supposed destiny. "Commander it has come to my attention that Captain Katsuragi is not suitable to care for the Third Child, and that he should immediately be taken from her care." Shion was nervous, not because of whom she stood before, Shion didn't give a rat's rumpus what Gendo thought. No Shion just needed to convince the old pervert to give his son to her. 'Then all will be right with the world.'

Not wanting to hear, see, or even acknowledge his son today, Gendo wasn't enjoying his first meeting. 'Damn son, damn damn son,' Gendo thought as he stared at Shion's chest through his glasses and tried to seem he was debating. With his 'problem' healed he had a lot of time to make up for. "What evidence do you have that Katsuragi isn't fit for her caring for the Third Child?"

Stepping forward ahead of Shion, Kos-Mos opened her mouth and replayed the audio capture from the boat. Kos-Mos could feel her heart pumping steadily and hard in her chest. 'I may finally have master to myself and freed of that woman.' As the audio recording came to a close, Shion handed Gendo photos taken from the live feed she received from Kos-Mos of events that happened at the Katsuragi apartment.

'If I let Shinji live with one of the of the stockholders but claim they can't marry him until the angels are defeated it may solve my problem.' Leaning back in his chair, Gendo wished for a moment that Ritsuko didn't have to perform a physical on the Second Child. His mind debating on the correct way to whore his son out to the different stockholders, 'should it be a month basis, weekly, or something else?' Looking at the photos Gendo had a momentary bout of pride of his son, 'at least he's a ladies man like myself.'

Had Gendo known that women were severely repulsed by him, he'd have thought even higher of his son. Putting the photos off to the side, "I see that I was mistaken with allowing the Captain to stand as the Third's guardian, I will see to his placement in due time." Waving his hand in dismissal, Gendo wasn't happy to see them not immediately following his commands. "Yes?"

Her breath caught in her thought, Shion was now at the hard part. Putting herself in line to accept Shinji. "Sir with all respect I believe that I should be the one to take care of Shinji. As he awakened Kos-Mos it would serve my research goals incredibly to have the two of them together." Shion still doubted that Gendo had any intentions of allowing one Sasami Jurai to live, so she could claim her man in one swoop if he allowed it.

Kos-Mos and Shion's blood was pumping loudly in their ears as they anticipated Gendo's next few words. Again Gendo appeared deep in thought as he ogled the two women before him, he crushed their spirits with one word, "No." Turning around in his desk, the man signaled that the meeting was over and that they needed to go as he thought of the best place to deposit his son. 'I love making others suffer.'

With his back to the duo, Gendo never saw Kos-Mos's arm turn into her trusty R-Cannon and Shion's attempts to keep said cannon from taking Gendo's head off. It would have been too messy anyway. And besides, Shion had another plan. Whispering to Kos-Mos, "We just needed to get him out of there, I can hack the Magi and set myself up as Shinji's guard, lets go quick."

Nodding to Shion's logic, Kos-Mos let the scientist led her out of the office. A deep profound sadness made itself manifest in her soul. She was so sure she'd be allowed happiness now that Shinji was to be freed of Misato. 'Why can't I be allowed happiness? I didn't ask to be made in this fashion and yet I am made to suffer for it.' Sight-jacking Sumomo Kos-Mos had to check if her beloved master was safe, seeing only blackness Kos-Mos cursed. 'That damn Sumomo! Do I have to remind her to get out of his bag too?'

With heavy hearts the scientist and android left Gendo's office and let the new intern know it was his turn. Walking into Gendo's office, the new intern who was hired at Nerv after being terminated a few weeks ago from the Jet Alone program had bad news for the commander. "Sir, I just heard from the stock exchange, two women are threatening to sell a quarter of all of Nerv's stock."

Turning quickly around in his chair again to face the new comer, Gendo's face was pale. 'Those bitches are acting out there threat! Dammit!' His extreme reaction wasn't lost on the intern who snickered softly because nobody saw Gendo Ikari anything but calm and collected. Hearing the laugh, Gendo's eyes narrowed and he said with as much wickedness as he could muster, "You're fired."

-No he isn't doing the Donald Trump hand gesture either-

School was having an odd effect on Shinji on this day. He received another request from Ami to attend the after school study group session. Since he made it to the last one they insisted he come for the next one, as it was the continuation of the last. 'Well I don't have tests today and that last session really did help me out.' So he agreed to meet the group at Hikawa Shrine after school let out. For some reason Makoto had been avoiding looking at him during class, a fact Shinji felt upset about. 'She must be mad about my actions while she was knocked out.'

The real reason the classroom was in disarray was that the addition of the betting pool all the girls had to plan and strategize their actions. 'No more miss nice girl. I'll beat those other tramps and win his heart and the money!' So while Shinji listened to the teacher drone on the other students were making there battle plans. As lunch hit and Rei had still yet to make her appearance, Shinji was growing nervous wandered around the school looking to see if she had arrived late. The moment Shinji stepped out of the room, the betting table opened and all of the Sailor Senshi added their yen to the pot.

Heading towards the outdoor quad, Shinji spotted Rei, well he thought it looked a bit like Rei. 'Why is she wearing cat ears?' Seeing Rei walking towards him but staring at her hands, Shinji was perplexed. Then he saw the group of drooling guys following behind her and his sense of duty kicked in. 'What if she read something odd and they try to take advantage of her? I can't let that happen.'

As Rei's latest binge into the world of Anime sank into her mind, her following of men grew. Seeing a girl dressed like a cat girl played upon the minds of the dateless men of Tokyo-3 junior high and they were very interested in Rei at the moment. Rei knew this, but as she adapted to Koshka Nekoi from one of Ritsuko's sick shows used to hopefully seduce Maya, that being _Usagi-chan de Cue _Rei was using her powers of seduction and male manipulation to form an army to destroy the other girls. 'He will be mine, my charming Shinji.'

Her army forming action was the reason that Rei had not been to class, and why she was looking for her prey now. Spotting Shinji, Rei's ears perked up and her tail, while not seen by Shinji, started wagging happily. "Shinji how are you doing today, I missed you." Rei cooed in Shinji's direction.

Grabbing Rei by the arm and running away from the crowd of men, Rei thought for a moment that she didn't need her army to get Shinji. 'He already realized I truly love him and he loves me?' Finding an empty janitors closet, Shinji hurriedly pulled Rei in after him and shut the door. Moments later Rei's influenced band passed by leaving the two in silence.

"Um…Rei are you ok?" Shinji asked as he flipped on the light switch to get a better look at Rei. Seeing her ears and oddly enough a collar around her neck linked to a thin metal chain, Shinji had to take a moment to beat down his libido that thought Rei looked very sexy at the moment. 'I'm sick! She needs help and I think that! How dare I?' With his self abuse finished and his libido again defeated by the righteous animosity of himself Shinji returned to Rei.

Rubbing her nose with the back of her hand, Rei smiled thinly at Shinji. 'Is this how he wants to play it?' she thought as she pulled Shinji deeper into the closet. "I'm fine, but those men scared me a trifle." Pulling Shinji into a light hug, Rei rested her head on his shoulders. 'This feels right, this is right.' Closing her eyes, Rei felt a sense of security and oneness with Shinji. For the first time in her life she felt that she could truly be happy and herself. And at that moment her complex started its long road to remission.

Doing his best not to pass out, Shinji tried to comfort the seemingly frightened girl. Spying the collar around her neck Shinji noticed something very odd. 'It says property of Gendo Ikari…but father's name is scratched out and mine is written over it?' Yes Rei's collar was once property of Ritsuko Akagi, but after clawing Ritsuko in retribution for testing drugs on her, Rei liberated it and changed it. 'I am his, if he'll have me.'

'Well I think its best if we take these fake ears off,' Shinji thought as he prepared to free Rei of what had attracted the fear of those men. Slowly Shinji moved his hand to Rei's head and softly ran his fingers over the soft silky ears that he thought was fake seeking the place where they met the band that held them to her head.

'For fakes the feel really nice,' Shinji thought as he continued to look for the band. Finding a ridge, which was really where the ear connected to Rei's skull, Shinji slowly rubbed the surface. Unbeknown to him, some cats are very sensitive in theirs ears. Rei was overly sensitive due to the newness of her ears so as Shinji rubbed and petted her ears she felt something new in her body.

A low guttural sound bellowed softly at first but grew in intensity. Rei's engine had started and she was purring like the cat she had become. 'This feels very agreeable,' Rei thoughts as she purred louder and all but crushed her head into Shinji's hand. 'Very agreeable.' This was about the time that Shinji realized Rei had a tail, as it wrapped itself possessively around his leg.

"Rei…what is that?" Shinji asked softly as he heard the not quite human sound emanating form somewhere in Rei's chest. 'Its as if she really is part cat…that can't be a tail can it.' His hand stopped massaging Rei's ears, much to her dismay. His mind tried to think how it was possible that Rei had a tail and where the ears attached to her head as he saw the slanted pupils in Rei's eyes. "Rei who did this to you?"

Like all cats, Rei didn't want to stop being pet. Rubbing her head against Shinji's palm. "Akagi-san did it to me on accident." Her eyes starting to fog as the joy of having her ears scratched started to sink in, Rei looked at Shinji and saw him in a new light. "I think its time for a good scratch," Rei said huskily. 'And he looks like a good board to work on.' Licking her lips Rei pushed Shinji against the wall.

'Oh dear Kami-sama she's lost her mind!' Shinji thought as Rei looked about to eat him alive. Which wasn't far from the truth but just a different rendition of the word. Hating himself for it, Shinji knew that he had to exploit Rei's sudden cat-ness to escape from being killed by her. "Rei, Rei…" Rei's eyes narrowed slightly as Shinji's hand grabbed a nearby mop and started wagging it around, her attention being diverted by waving string and her cat instincts taking over.

Seeing his moment of escape at hand, Shinji tossed the broom in the corner and Rei pounced on it. Her claws sunk into the semi-moist material of the mop and tearing at it. It was great fun for a cat, but it wasn't quite as fulfilling as what Rei had intended. Running out of the room, shutting the door, and calling Ritsuko for help the doctor said she'd be at the school to cure Rei from her 'insane impulse to tear me to shreds' as Shinji put it.

He stood watch over the room until Maya arrived and escorted Rei out of the school by using a bit of string on a pencil. Rei still looked very happy to chase and bat at it. With Rei safely on her way to Nerv, Shinji headed back to class having never eaten his lunch. 'At least Rei didn't do something she'd regret and didn't kill me,' Shinji thought having never gotten to know if Rei's tongue was sandpaperish like a real cats.

-Sorry but that last line was something I've wondered about cat people-

'Two projects denied, a few terminations, and one forced relocation to the Nerv base at the North Pole. I'm on a role today,' Gendo thought jovially. Truly being a bastard was one of his greatest joys in life. His emotional high game to a close however when for the umpteenth time his office doors exploded in flames. "Damn it Rei I told you to stop reading Slayers! How many times do I have to replace those doors!"

"Like I care what you have to do, little man," Asuka quipped as she strode into Gendo's office, her high heel shoes clicking and clacking as she marched to him. Asuka was very displeased with her treatment. "I have a few demands for you. If you comply I won't skin you alive."

Never one to be intimidated, well not one to be intimidated by teenagers…ok ok not one to be intimidated by Asuka, yet, Gendo scowled at the approaching girl. "I don't take orders from children girl. Now I hope you intend to replace that door or I'll have to have you confined to the brig." Doing his best evil gaze that often worked on those that feared him, Gendo had no idea what he was in store for.

Asuka had seen many evil gazes, she had participated in more than most humans have in their life, and her father invented them so Gendo's was nothing. Walking right up to his desk, Asuka leaned over and rested her chin on the palm of her left hand. "Listen flesh bag," the middle finger of Asuka's right hand traced circles on the desk, "I know you like to feel like you're in charge and all, but your not. Not anymore."

Rage building by the second, Gendo wasn't about to let some snot nosed brat tell him the business. "Now listen here you foreign freak I don't have," now the circle Asuka was tracing burst into flames setting his desk ablaze. As his papers started to catch, "As I was saying, I don't have to give you any trouble. How can I help you?" Taking his seat quickly, Gendo realized he did NOT have the upper hand.

With a wave of her hand the fires died, "Better. My vassal, you call him Shinji, is someplace in this city. I want him found and I want housing for the two of us." If Gendo weren't about to wet himself, he'd have found Asuka's form of direct ordering almost attractive. But being the quivery mass of flesh that Asuka reduced him too Gendo just nodded.

"He is currently living at the Katsuragi residence. The bridge crew can inform you were that is." His fear overriding his mind, Gendo had forgotten already that he had just signed for the release of Shinji from Misato's custody. Misato was to be informed of that when she came in to work in six or seven hours, as she hadn't answered the phone all day.

Walking around to Gendo's side of the table, Asuka's complexion darkened and she bared her fangs and her tiny red horns glinted in the waxing sun. Stepping over the smoldering remains of Gendo's door, Ritsuko joined the fray. The doctor's lab coat covered with soot and burn holes. "Commander I think we have a problem with the Second Child she doesn't appear…to be…human?" Ritsuko had been totally unprepared to see the abstract terror on the commander's face.

"I'll be leaving in a second," Asuka said to Ritsuko before whispering softly into Gendo's ear. With each word that Asuka said Gendo's face grew paler and paler. Just when it was almost possible to see the blood flowing behind his skin, Asuka stood tall and patted him on the back. "Now that only happens IF you're lying to me. Bye now."

Stepping around the woman who had the audacity to stick her with a needle, Asuka made her way to reuniting with her vassal. Rushing to the commander's side, "Sir, my blood work on the Second indicates she's part demon! Sir…sir?"

'Lately I think I chose the wrong job,' Gendo thought just before he passed out and nearly choked on his own tongue.

-Time to end this thing, so bring out the Senshi!-

"I told you Shinji-san you don't have to help me clean. I like having the study session here," Rei Hino weakly defended her position after the study group disbanded for the day after a long session of gazing deeply into Shinji's eyes. Shinji, who felt like he wasn't doing his part to assist, offered to help the young Shrine maiden to clean up the room.

Running a dusk rag across the table, "I insist Rei-san. You and your friends have been such a great help to me lately I want to repay your kindness." He had wondered why the other girls didn't offer to say and help, but Rei had been adamant that they leave, something about her grandfather being around. "But if you want me to leave as well…"

The thought of Shinji leaving sent chills down Rei's spine. "No, no, no Shinji I'm glad you want to help. They never even offer it." Rei said to the photo of her friends that she held in her hand. 'Alone with Shinji, I have to make the best of this.'

Finding some papers under Rei's desk, Shinji collected them and assorted them. "Wow, Rei-san did you really write this music?" Shinji asked as he saw her name written under the lyrics and musical score. 'This is a really nice song too,' Shinji was impressed.

"Don't read that!" Not having a lot of faith in her work, Rei was mortified to see Shinji holding the song she wrote while thinking of him. Catching her foot on the hem of her priestess uniform, Rei spilled forward surely to hit the edge of the table that was in front of her. Shutting her eyes and hoping she didn't get hurt to badly, Rei never felt the blow. No she felt herself tightly embraced in oddly strong arms. "Shin…Shinji?"

Blushing softly and helping Rei back to her feet, "Sorry, I shouldn't have been prying." Shinji totally blew off the whole saving Rei's life as he felt he shouldn't have tried cleaning under the desk. "I should have asked first. Rei-san?"

During her fall Rei had tossed the cup of water she had gathered to water the house plants with and it doused Shinji's shirt. 'He's got a lot more muscle than it seems,' Rei thought as a tiny dabble of drool started forming. Taking in the view Shinji's semi-transparent shirt provided. "Did you say something?" she said dumbly.

Feeling the first rush of cold air hit him, "I asked if you had anything else I might wear? I know its rude to ask but it's a little chilly today." Rubbing his shoulders to add to his warmth Shinji didn't know what she might have that he could wear, but anything would suffice. 'I hate to think it but she looks very nice in her outfit.'

Struck by inspiration, "I have a spare shrine outfit, but you'd have to abide tradition while you wear it." It was a lie about tradition but she didn't care, Shinji didn't know. Pulling out one of her extras she handed it to the outstretched arms of Shinji.

"You don't mind me borrowing this. It is yours and I don't want to impose," He asked softly. Rei said it was her fault in the first place and didn't mind at all as long as he did abide tradition. "What tradition are you talking about Rei-san?"

"To keep the clothing Holy, nothing but skin may touch it," Rei said rather timidly. While it was an old tradition that had long since been phased out, Rei had to take a chance for her move to work. "I'll leave the room so you can change." Shutting the shoji screen before Shinji could mutter a protest, Rei took her spot at the convenient eye sized hole that Usagi made for spying.

'Wait I never told him how to put it on, this won't…' Rei's mind came to a crashing halt as her show started. Shinji abided custom and disrobed completely albeit slowly and with much reluctance and put his Gi and Hakuma on in the correct fashion. Rei's mind just drank in the show. 'I didn't know that was even possible,' Rei thought as the vision started to fade from her mind.

Opening the door again and stepping into the room, "I'll put these out to dry and when they're finished you can change back ok?" Taking the damp shirt, Rei stretched it out on the deck of her house to dry. "Now that we have some time how about I show you around the shrine?"

Stumbling as he walked, due to Rei being taller than he was and leaving extra material to trip him, Rei took his arm. "There, no more tripping ok?" Smiling at the boy Rei started walking around the temple grounds telling Shinji about all of her duties at the shrine. While she was talking all she could think was, 'his arm feels nice wrapped in mine, I could get to like this.'

Shinji was thinking something completely different, and again his mouth acted before his mind could catch up. "I'm amazed at how talented you are Rei-san. You work at this shrine and keep it beautiful. You're an amazing poet by the looks of it, plus you're a good student. You truly are an amazing person." Mumbling the last bit, Shinji couldn't believe he had just said that to his nice hostess.

Her face blaze, Rei just looked forward. 'He…he just said…nobody said that…I am an amazing person to him?' Clutching Shinji's arm tighter, Rei wished she didn't have to let go of it. A sudden cawing caught the two's attention as Rei's pet crows landed before them. "Oh Shinji," Rei stumbled still overwhelmed by Shinji's comments, "This is Daimios and Phoebus they act as guardians of the shrine."

Having heard the names before, Shinji blurted out, "Mars." The second the word left his lips he could feel Rei tense completely. Thinking he needed to explain, "Their names, they're the names for the moons of Mars right?"

'Does he really know who I am? Or is this a trick? They are named after the moons of Mars after all.' Laughing awkwardly Rei said, "Yup that's right, oh have I shown you the fire reading room yet?"

"Oh ladies!" an elderly voice called out from behind the walking duo. "What do I own the honor to have Rei bringing more of her beautiful friends to my temple?" Rei's grandfather asked as he sized up Shinji fully believing he was a girl, which he wasn't at the present moment.

"Pleasure to meet you sir," Shinji dismissed the girl comment, "Rei-san here was giving me a tour of you beautiful shrine." Shinji bowed to show his respect to the master of the temple, not know he was a total pervert.

"Grandpa, please Shinji-san isn't a girl and I was about to give him a fire reading so if you could go now!" Waving her hand quickly, Rei wanted her grandfather gone. She loved the man but he was a big pest and got in the way a lot when she had something important to do. "Now lets go Shinji."

'What is that girl doing now?' The old man thought watching his granddaughter dragging what he now knew was a boy into the deeper confines of the temple. Shrugging his shoulders, the man walked off towards the front of the shrine to hopefully ask a pretty young girl to join his temple. 'Trying to ditch the Shrine Maiden title already?'

Now seated in a very small room with charms cascading around the walls, Shinji was getting a little nervous. "Rei-san you said you're going to do a fire reading?" While he was acquainted with the term, he wasn't with the practice or people who did it. "You don't have to do something that demanding for me."

"Its ok Shinji-san I do them all the time," again that was true but her intentions weren't. 'All I do is say you're destined to marry a raven-haired shrine maiden and all the joys of the world will be yours. I fall into his arms, he kisses me, and…' Luckily the blazing fire kept Rei's nosebleed under concealment. "Now just sit quietly and all will be done swiftly."

Shinji did as he was told, mystified by the incantations and ritual he was seeing. Rei tossed several beads into the fire, acting as if she was truly going to perform the ritual. As she was about to talk the cosmos spoke to her. The fired roared and in a brief instant Rei saw what the cosmos had in store for Shinji. 'My Kami-sama he truly is the one I've been destined to meet.'

The sheer power of the vision forced Rei into a swoon, and had Shinji not been there to catch her, she'd have fallen into the blaze. Taking his top off, Shinji fashioned a small pillow for Rei and positioned her the best he could. 'She over exerted herself on my account, I best leave soon.' He waited until the fire had died down and Rei's breathing calmed to a slow and steady measure. Brushing some of the stray hairs from her face, Shinji was captivated momentarily by the traditional beauty before him.

Shaking off the dirty thoughts of praise he had, Shinji headed back to Rei's room and put his old clothing back on and again wrote a note. It stated simply he was sorry that he had to leave so soon and hoped she wasn't upset at him for it or for making her perform the task she forced on him. As Rei read it later that night, she found the inspiration for a new song and started writing 'My to be dearest.'

Back in the present Shinji was standing at the bus stop at the base of the steps of Hikawa shrine. He had hoped to be home within the hour to start cooking supper. As he thought of what to cook a mild voice called to him from behind. "Excuse me sir could you help me a moment?"

Turning around and finding a girl with long brown hair, her bangs in pig-tails at the side of her face. The woman wore a very bulky light brown overcoat and had a pair of glasses in her hand. "I need to fix my glasses could you hold my papers?" She held out the paper to Shinji. "You look familiar are you famous, what is your name?"

Taking the extended papers into his hands, Shinji shook his head. "No miss I'm not famous, I'm nothing special at all. Oh sorry you asked my name, Shinji Ikari." While he was very famous on and off the adult website business. Shinji would never believe it. "Your name miss, if you don't mind my asking?"

"Yomiko Redman. And I must sadly inform you of your kidnapping," The Paper said as she clicker her fingers and the papers in Shinji's hands wrapped around him forcing him to drop his satchel spilling Sumomo out on the pavement. "I've been ordered to kidnap you Ikari-san, I do apologize for that." Shinji mumbled incoherently and Sumomo pulled helplessly at the paper to free him. Pushing the machine away from her target with her foot, Yomiko made a paper airplane out of another stack of papers and took the boy off to her meeting place.

Finding Yomiko's note under her body, Sumomo quickly called out to Kos-Mos about what had happened. The damage to the street was great as Kos-Mos erupted from the ground as anger filled her circuits. "However took my master will PAY!"

-SHOCK AND GASP THIS IS HOW IT ENDS?!?!?!-

Author notes

Oh my goodness Shinji's been kidnapped? Yup that's right folks our lovable pilot has been kidnapped by sinister forces! Hope you enjoyed this chapter and keep reading As you may or may not know OoD has finished and I'm returning to my Nadesico fanfiction for my 'primary' story. So I hope you read that too

Ja Mata

Zentrodie

Omake

Updated battle lines!

Those siding with Kos-Mos: Xeo, Konos the Grey, ScienceMonkey, Nicknack, DarkChuchuo, Sybian Machine, Final Max, Crrot, Sol bandus, Pandomine, Vaurnut, NickNack, Soulless, Sleepy Kitty, Deus, renzokuken-sama, James Ray Edwards, KevinEc, Alpha Draconis1, a fan3, Science Monkey, Darklion74, Serpent Spy, Soulless, Jin Kazemeijin, Kyubi, CheeseKing, Typhon, "The Man in the Pallid Mask," Cyber Angel One, Sideris, Anomaly27, Slayer6, SickToTheGore, Tempest Destiny Total: 35

Those wanting a Harem: deinku, VCR, Jon Cook (w/o Asuka), mc2rpg, Positron(for now), Hank, Finalfantasyxii, chan,ken, kins of Ireland, Mordamir, Kman, Valtiel, Epsilon, ShadowCascade, EchoGarrote, Vic, Frank the Bunny (Don't chain me up!), NateGold, Gord, Slake-Sama, Zemzaba, TheWickerMan, Dark Anomaly, Bobby, (Unknown mass), Masumune, Variable Creatue, Tyson, Drake Smith, Rusty Knight, Bonta-Kun ,Production, Messiah3, WingOmega, DarkStarlkerFan (and wait) Total: 33

Those siding with Asuka: Kusinagi, Nova10, Vibious, Final Max, Kuracao, Razial the Damned, Redshadow64, xXx, Supereva0102, Asuka-fan, SOMEBODY, Supereva01, Knighsshadow, WarpWizard, Dude, Dragon's death, NefCanuck, Uniden, A/S Fan X 2, Edhunne, Old Fool Total: 22

Those siding with Rei: Otaku-Dman, Vibious, SoulFire, Macavity the Mystery Cat, Dark Machine, Philg, NickNack, Azurewind, Redmage2k, Rei-aka-Ayanami-chan, jennyjennie, rgreat, Katfum, Oni-Otaku, wiseman, Crimson Arrow, Player0, GoldmonX, Mak, Pert-kun, The Mad Shoe Total: 21

Those siding with Blue haired girlsOrganized Kaos, Trikster , Kima Prideflame, Nick McC, Shinzaku, M.E.S.S, Total: 7

Those siding with Sasami: Doggystyle, razzor15, Vaurnut, Golden Kitsune, Total: 4

Those siding with Mana: Steve Vader, Chewy, Player 0 Total: 3

Those siding with Shion Uzuki: Remenants, Final Max, Golden Kitsune Total : 3

Those siding with Misato: Kippenberger, JVR Total: 2

Those siding with Yui Ikari: Zang-Sama, Education total: 2

Those siding with Hikari: Amathyst Wind Total: 1

And there you have it! Both Yui and Mana received and lost a vote putting their forces at the same position. The Forces of the Red haired Demoness have pulled further ahead of their blue haired angel rival! Kos-Mos STILL HOLDS THE LEAD!

Aside for one chapter the android has decimated all comers for Shinji's heart! The harem vote seems to be dropping in speed as Asuka moves to over come it. While Harem still has the edge over the bulk of the competition, the Asuka forces are building up for a coup de tat.

Will Kos-Mos's lead result in her simply storming over and claiming her love or will the battle lines change as time changes. Only you can decide as it is you that determines the standings!

As Shinji is in the clutches of the mysterious group, your votes equal status for your side! GRAB YOUR BANNERS AND WAVE THEM PROUDLY! And say THEY WILL WIN!!!

Ok…I need to take a breather as I got a little to into that last bit


	12. They aren't taking it well

Standard Disclaimer

Um yeah here I am again. Lets see something interesting to say…nope nothing. Drawing a total blank. Getting warmer out…sunny…moon revolving around the earth. Nick-nack-patty-whack give a dog a bone. This old man came rolling home.

…Ok safe to say I've lost my mind, but that's ok. Just a reminder that the voting is always open for who you side with! And if you want to change your vote, that's fine too.

Well lets this start

-I've always wanted to know what the moon tastes like-

What We Make Of It

Chapter 12 – Breaking the News

Or

How to create a legion of homicidal women

The blackness that Shinji's mind dwelt in was lurched away in a sudden rush of foul smelling vapor. Instinctively drawing his head away from the smell held under his nose, Shinji's eyes drew open for the first time since he blanked out on the paper airplane. Trying to make connections to what he was seeing and where he was, Shinji could only see he was in a metal room with a large number of pipes running the length of the room. Holding the smelling salt away from him was, "Redman-san where are we?"

Surprised to be treated to so kindly after just kidnapping him, Yomiko smiled bitterly at the boy. "Sorry Ikari-kun but I'm not at liberty to tell you that, you are our captive you know." Yomiko's opinion of the kidnapping had started to decline long before the boy woke, now that she was talking to him it seemed even less like a good idea.

Fear began to grow in Shinji's chest as he felt the restraints on his legs that were shackled to a chair and his wrists bond together behind him. "Redman-san what are you going to do with me? Why is this happening?" Shinji's fear was not for his own life, he had given that no value, but if he wasn't at Nerv to pilot if an angel attacked somebody else would have to risk there life.

Yomiko was as in the dark about Shinji's fate as the other four members of the kidnapping force. All five of them received encrypted emails with the details about the assignment as well as method of payment. She didn't want to think to darkly about the boy's future, but then again she didn't know what to expect after seeing the other members. "We've been paid a lot of money to bring you here, after that we don't know. Please bear with us and I'm sure this will all be over soon."

Being who he was, Shinji trusted Yomiko without hesitation. "So you're not the only one then?" With nothing else to do, Shinji opted to try talking to this nervous person before him. He would have, if not for who he was and not currently under incarceration, thought it cute how the woman was pushing her fore fingers together and looking at the ground.

"There are five of us that make up the head of this operation and a slew of unnamed operatives," Yomiko figured it was safe to inform her captive. 'Not like he can escape anyway, were a few miles away from Japan on a tanker ship.' Pulling up a chair and sitting across from the boy, Yomiko hoped to calm his nerves a bit more and talk. He did seem to be a nice enough boy. "So do you read Ikari-san?"

With no friends in his past, Shinji had done a large amount of reading. His cheeks turning a slight pink at the sheer volume of books he had read. "I've read a little Redman-san." And soon the two were in a heated discussion about the ramifications of _War and Peace_. Yomiko's urge to take the well-read boy for her own was steadily growing with each passing moment. 'I've never met another person with my passion for books before!'

-Yup even when kidnapped he's polite-

Sitting at the Katsuragi table for breakfast was a confused Ayanami Rei. After a few hours at Nerv the previous day where Ritsuko administered a series of shots that freed her of the admiration of legions of fanboys, that being her cat ears and tail, Rei got a call from Ritsuko that morning telling her to go to Misato's in the morning. Having finished reading Full Metal Panic and again adopting Tessa's personality, Rei knew she could both apologize to Shinji and score points.

But as she and Sasami sat at the table nibbling on some fruit and making small talk, neither Shinji nor Misato had appeared. Rei chose to not kill Sasami outright, but to befriend the pigtailed girl to learn her weaknesses and then crush her. "Do you know what happened yesterday? I heard that Kos-Mos went on a rampage," Rei asked demurely.

Sasami plainly didn't care what happened to Kos-Mos, servants could be replaced if they wanted to go on killing sprees. Tapping the wooden spoon she used to shovel rice from the cooker to her chin, "I can't say that I do know. Washu and I were going over the school administration forms." Sasami agreed with Washu that going to school wouldn't improve her mind any, but it would give her time to be with her fiancé.

'Great the bitch will be at school too…why won't the commander expel her from the country?' Rei thought as she let a lovely fake smile grace her cheeks. "Making such food for Shinji to eat for breakfast, you really are a good cook. To bad you don't have any other talents as good as that," Rei's light and airy tone totally not mixing with the harsh verbal barb.

The insult registered in Sasami's mind as she turned the burner on the miso soup down. With her smile never dwindling, "Well a woman should have at least _one _talent, wouldn't you agree?" Believing Rei had no such talent at all, Sasami tossed the ball back in Rei's court.

The two rivals continued the friendly game of 'I'm not really complimenting you' for about thirty minutes until they heard the front door opening. Finding it strange that the door would open when the two human residents should have already been there and the semi-human one had gone to visit her friend insanity. Before they could ask who it was, a very angry Misato entered the kitchen. "Oh great, you two. Stand in line now so I can just take you both out with one shot."

Seeing the gun in Misato's hand, along with the look of madness, Sasami stood behind Rei waiting to hear the guns retort before ducking. Rei wasn't as ready to die, "Captain is something wrong, you look…" Words like crazy, insane, loopy, and 'off your rocker' came to Rei's mind but she settled with, "upset."

Upset wasn't close to how Misato felt, enraged was closest and it was a good hundred miles away from the actual feeling. At the end of her shift, Gendo had very politely destroyed her life by telling her Shinji was going to move out of her apartment soon. Gendo had slept in his office to tell Misato this so he could see the look on her face. Sadly for Gendo was the blank spot in his memory where Asuka had put the fear of Satan in him. But no matter, the redhead would remind him later.

Grabbing a beer from the fridge and sitting at the table, Misato took her gun and shot the top of the can instead of using the pull tab. Looking between Rei and Sasami, Misato hated both of them at the moment. 'They just want Shinji, it's the only reason they're here. Why can't he stay and THEY move away.'

Watching Shinji's old guardian slam the beer, and looking at the hole in the wall were the bullet exited the room, Sasami sat at the table. "Maybe it would help if you told us about why you're upset instead of shooting things." Just to be on the safe side Sasami was beginning to draw on Tsunami's latent powers and Rei was debating on how much power her AT Field would need to capture a bullet.

As the sadness and bitterness of Gendo's decision ate at her, Misato wanted to cry, needed to cry. It wasn't fair how she could be given such a blessing and then have it violently snatched away. "You two aren't concerned about me, not at all!" Her sorrow fueled her mind.

Being tactful, Sasami said that wasn't true at all and that both of them were very concerned about her, it was a lie but Sasami didn't hate Misato, she just saw her as competition. Rei however, didn't like the idea of tact. Tact was something one used when they were a coward. So Rei said, "Correct, we are worried that in your state you will hurt Shinji."

The next thing all three women heard was the sound of Misato's can slamming against the wall. Her left hand still extended, Misato's haggard face turned to Rei's. "You don't care about Shinji either, you just want his unit!" The booze started to take affect and Misato wasn't really thinking at this point.

Tilting her head to the side, Rei didn't understand Misato's comment as it was intended. "Why would I need Unit-01 when Unit-00 is my designated Evangelion." Not being part of Nerv, and having the most advanced star ship in the universe, Sasami said she didn't want Unit-01 either.

Dragging her fingers down her face in frustration, Misato slammed her other hand on the table. "No! You want his how-do-you-do!" Pushing herself away from the table and nearly falling over in the process, Misato's single can of beer compiled with her emotional state equated into a very drunk Captain.

Now it was Sasami's turn to be perplexed, "Misato-san why would we want his greeting? And I've never actually heard him say that." Rei was wondering exactly what had occurred to put Misato in such a clear state of delirium, and the reasoning behind her being summoned to the apartment.

"His instrument! You two want his instrument!" Misato hollered in the faces of the half angel and the half goddess. 'I can't make it any simpler than that without drawing pictures!'

Looking at Misato, Rei said simply, "I don't play the cello." Misato's face lost all color and the frazzled woman clawed frantically at her hair in frustration. Sasami gave the woman a weak smile and hoped that all the noise hadn't woke Shinji.

Putting all of her available wits into a comeback to make the girls understand what she was saying, Misato pulled upon aspects of her brain long dormant. Her comeback was, "BAH!" and she stormed off to her room, slamming the door behind her. Misato's brain had been to taxed to really provide at the moment. Collapsing on her futon, Misato buried her head in her pillow and sobbed for her loss.

Back in the kitchen however, Sasami's face turned a slight shade of pink. "You know what I've never seen before?" Sasami asked the still bemused face of Rei. On an unconscious level the girls' minds had started to wonder what Misato had been really saying.

A faint blush also appeared on Rei's face as strange thoughts started to enter her mind as well. Looking towards Shinji's room, Rei's mind was on the same wavelength as Sasami's. "I've not seen Shinji's…"

"I want to," Sasami said in a moment of boldness. Shinji was to be her husband, and she wanted to know what to expect come their wedding night. Blushing beet red, the two girls bolted out of their chairs and ran towards Shinji's room. Drawing back the small Shoji door they were greeted by a sobbing Sumomo. Taking the note from the machines hand, Sasami read the few words and fainted dead away.

"Some heroin you are," Rei muttered as she pulled the note from Sasami's limp fingers. Reading the note herself which simply said, _We have taken Shinji Ikari_ Rei ran to Misato's room. Moments after Misato saw the note, a fresh clip had been added to her sidearm and the pair were about to head to Nerv when the door opened.

The door opened into about a few thousand pieces as flame punctured it and it exploded into many tiny fragments. Asuka had come to collect her vassal. "Ok this BETTER be the place because I'm tired of explaining myself to you humans." Asuka hadn't mastered the art of reading Kanji so she had to make many house calls in her search for Shinji. Much to the horror of the residents of the homes that didn't have him. "Oh, Misato I've come for my vassal, where is he?"

Misato didn't speak to Asuka, she just handed the demoness the letter, which was promptly turned to ash as Asuka's anger erupted and consumed the innocent piece of wood pulp. Flying down to Misato and Rei as they got into the car, Asuka shoved Rei in the back seat. "I'm not going to sit by for this you know." Misato knew, many people were going to pay for this, and if Misato got her way, and she often did, she'd get bloody satisfaction.

-Its always fun when somebody gets hurt…did come out right-

While some think being tied to a chair is fun, Shinji wasn't quite as inclined to agree with them. After a nice chat with Yomiko, where Shinji forgave her for kidnapping him as it wasn't her fault it was her job, the boy was left in silence for a few hours. He passed the time by remembering song lyrics and hoping that he wasn't needed at the moment. The thoughts of his friends and classmates would have continued if his stomach didn't rebel against him and cry out in righteous fury. "I'm hungry."

As his voice echoed in the small room a loud screech from the door behind him signaled the arrival another guests. "Um, hello. I'd hate to impose upon you but I'm hungry. Are you going to feed me?" Being a prisoner, Shinji knew that he could expect harsh treatment, but he hoped for the best.

Feeling a light pat to his head, Shinji's eyes beheld his new visitor. It wasn't Yomiko, unless Yomiko dyed her hair purple and donned a Chinese waitress outfit. The girl smiled broadly at him as she set a small table up, her bright brown eyes dancing. "You boy that kill big monster yes?"

Not making the mistake that many others have and thought the woman stupid, Shinji correctly guessed that his food provider's native tongue wasn't Japanese. "Do you mean the angels miss?" Try as he might, Shinji couldn't peel his eyes away from the steaming broth in the bowl before it, 'it smells heavenly!'

"Iya!" Shampoo said happily, misconstruing Shinji's wanton gaze for her and not the food. Carefully spooning the food into his mouth, Shampoo was under direct orders not to free the boy from his shackles for any reason. "Strong man fight big monsters. I lose Ranma but you fight stronger opponents. Shampoo choose you now." Nodding to her logic and the Amazon law and the will to marry the strongest man on Earth. Shampoo believed that man was Shinji. He did fight monsters a few stories taller than any opponent she had fought.

Embarrassed at being spoon fed, but to hungry to object, Shinji relished the taste of the meal. "This is terrific, Shampoo-san," Shinji took her broken Japanese statement that her name was Shampoo. "It's a shame you're a kidnapper and not the owner of a shop, this food is great," Shinji felt an immeasurable sadness as he ate the food. He didn't want to die, and from the great food he was being fed, what else could it have been but his last meal.

Shinji's compliment and saddened tone lanced the Amazon's heart. Her doubt about the rightness of the kidnapping was forming, but she had her laws to follow. Rubbing Shinji's cheek affectionately after he finished his meal. "Wo Ai Ni," the very intelligent Chinese woman said as she kissed the boys cheek before walking out of the room and leaving him alone again, believing he just received the kiss of death.

-If he were in his female form at the time it would have been-

"Well that explains why we're getting police reports that Kos-Mos is destroying every abandoned warehouse in Tokyo-3," Ritsuko said as she directed Misato's gun at the wall and not her head. Hearing the ranting and raving of Misato about Shinji's kidnapping, and Asuka's threats about destroying her immortal soul if she didn't get off her ass and help find him, Ritsuko wanted an aspirin.

Shion, who had joined the group, was equally shocked to learn of the Third Child's condition. 'I haven't even had a chance to hack the Magi yet and he's been kidnapped!' Looking at the expectant faces of Misato, Asuka, and Ritsuko Shion pulled out her cellular phone and called Kos-Mos over the special channel she made. "Kos-Mos we need you at base to plan the recovery mission ok? No I will not let you hang their hides in the living room. No you can't kill everybody that gets in your way…GET HERE NOW!"

Asuka fumed, and as she did her mantle of flame grew larger and incinerated one of the level one techs. "Shouldn't he have had some sort of protection?" The idea of a secret organization letting one of, well the only normal pilot they had go around unprotected sounded very stupid. "And why haven't you taught him any combat material?"

Now it was Misato's turn to have the assorted eyes fall on her. "Section-2 said the assault happened so quickly they didn't have time to react. As for training we never really thought about it." Large crashes and a few sirens blared while Kos-Mos dusted herself off after forcing herself through all thirty-seven layers of reinforced steel. "Damn it Kos-Mos do you know how hard it is to replace that stuff!"

Not caring how much it cost, and not caring to be at Nerv, Kos-Mos looked at Shion with as much venom as possible. "Every moment they have him could be his last. I must find my master now. Why did you call me back?" Now nose-to-nose with Shion, Kos-Mos wanted answers now. The other assembled crew just watched in shock as Kos-Mos stressed her impatience.

"Having you blow up random buildings isn't going to help us save him. It might even hinder us as they'll take your art of destruction as a sign to kill him and run!" Shion countered as her own fear of Shinji's demise started filling her heart. She hadn't thought of the possibility of Shinji dying. None of them had. 'We were to lax with his safety.'

"I'd say all of you are massive failures," a harsh voice said as it rounded the corner and joined the group. Asuka instantly loved the woman's taste in clothing. Standing a few inches taller than Misato and garbed in a full length red leather coat, her long flowing raven black hair partially hidden under a black leather cap, the woman looked very menacing.

Trying not to feel inadequate to the newcomer, Misato walked over and gazed deeply into the emerald green eyes accented with red highlights along the cheeks of the woman. "Who the hell are you to tell me I'm a massive failure!"

Clearing her throat, Ritsuko timidly pulled at her collar as the knowledge she had added to her feeling of guilt. "Misato, this is Attim M-Zak, recently put in charge of Shinji's personal protection." Ritsuko could see the disgust in Attim's eyes as she looked at all of them. In her short life, Attim had one source of attachment, the young man that risked his life for her without even knowing her name.

Attim was a byproduct of a test to accelerate the grown of clone tissue. Gendo wished to have a manner of creating more clones of Rei if the tank was destroyed, but the didn't want to test it on the original tissue used to make Rei. So Ritsuko borrowed from Washu's old research files and came up with Attim. The girl had had a life span of roughly twenty-five years. She had grown to her full size and power in under a year and would stay as she was until her body just gave out. Attim was the only successful product, the rest had lost the will to live long before they reached Attim's prowess.

Fortunately for Attim, she found an anchor to keep her hopeful in life. She would protect the one that tried to protect her. She would do it without him ever knowing she even existed. Ritsuko informed Attim that she told Shinji Attim had died, that being because Ritsuko was a real bitch. Citing at how grief stricken Shinji was about his failure to protect her, Attim vowed to serve him in secret all her life. 'He would only suffer more if he were to know I live, and I will die so soon along the pay way of his life.'

"What the devil do you mean she's in charge of Shinji's safety? If she is I'd say this is all HER FAULT!" Misato screamed at Attim. Misato's fears needed an outlet and hearing Ritsuko, she found one in Attim. Attim wasn't quite so accepting of the task of being Misato's bitch.

Putting her hand up to keep Misato from getting closer to her, and to prevent the spittle from Misato's tirade from landing on her coat, Attim calmly responded. She slammed her fist through the wall and pulled out a live wire. "Shut up or I'll fry you! You failed to see to his safety. What type of guardian are you that doesn't actually look out for your ward!"

Asuka, being who she was, smiled. "She does have a point Misato," her voice was a mix of humor and seriousness. Asuka didn't care which human protected her vassal as long as he was found and protected. 'And she has such good fashion sense she can't be bad,' the demon reasoned. Misato just glared at Asuka and Attim.

Stepping forward much to Misato's surprise, Kos-Mos spoke out. "But the kidnapper was said to have special abilities the agents Katsuragi ordered to protect Shinji with couldn't defend against." True had SHE been there, Kos-Mos would have neatly separated Yomiko's hands from her wrists before shoving all that paper down her gullet.

"YOU!" Attim's focus changed from Misato to the android, "You claim he's your master and you serve him? Where were you when this happened? Why didn't you protect your master? You're a failure as well!" Attim's one goal for her short life was already threatened and it was these women's fault! If Shinji were to die, she'd ever be able to repay the kindness he had shown to her. Attim had already known she loved the boy but would never be able to express it, but in her defense of him she could prove it. 'And these bitches might have ruined it!'

Misato's hand drew her gun while Kos-Mos formed her R-Scythe. In unison they spoke, "And where were you M-Zak-san? Why weren't you there to protect him since we're so irresponsible?" A small sense of pride grew in each woman as Attim stepped back. Ritsuko and Shion stepped away from all of them in fear they weren't fighters so anything that happened could be disastrous for them.

Taking her hat in her hands, Attim tossed it into Asuka's waiting fingers. "I was training for this day. I've mastered nearly every form of martial arts known to man. Do you two seriously think you could take me?" And she wasn't lying. At the onset of her plan to protect Shinji, Attim learned to master her inherent psychic powers as well as develop her skills as a martial artist.

Confident in her own skills, "I can take you myself, and when I do you'll be removed from your post as Shinji's protector." Clicking the safety off, Misato readied herself for combat, as did Kos-Mos.

"And when I win, Shinji will be removed from your care, bitch," Attim said easily as she launched into the fray. To those watching the trio battle it was a mix of horror and awe on their faces.

After twenties minutes, "I hate you so much right now," Misato said as she slumped to the ground next to the unconscious Kos-Mos. Attim's movements were so fast that Misato couldn't even follow them. She seemed to meld into the wall at times and even when Misato landed it blow it hurt her fist more than it hurt Attim.

Wiping the small drop of sweat off her brow, Attim took her hat back from Asuka and put it on her head again. "Now that this has been settled we have to plan on how we'll find Shinji and get him back." Looking down at Misato, "If you can move, follow us into the bridge."

Dragging her broken ego into the bridge behind the others, Kos-Mos helped Misato to walk. "She isn't a normal human, her movements were too precise and fine." Kos-Mos wanted to know more about her adversary. Anybody that could beat her even with the help of surprise was a shock to her. Misato just mumbled a few swear words and was helped into a seat.

Once those willing to help gathered around a medium sized table, Attim addressed them, "Do we have any form of tracking equipped on him?" The first order of business was to find Shinji. The kidnappers didn't ask for ransom or even directly take credit for the act. That was what scared them. Normally kidnappers want money or status or something, these kidnappers seemed to actually just want Shinji.

Kos-Mos admitted to Sumomo's purpose but informed them that the tiny machine had been left behind. Regretfully informing the others, Ritsuko had to say her plans for a tracking chip had yet to bear fruit. If they had bothered to contact Washu who was now tending to Sasami, the petit scientist would have laughed and told them the exact coordinates of the boy, but they didn't think of that. Then Asuka smiled and leapt from her chair. "I have in idea on how to find him!"

Calling upon her natural powers Asuka created a large pentagram of flame on the floor. Speaking in a tongue that sent shivers down all the human's spines, the flames grew larger until they reached the ceiling then receded leaving behind a pair of what could have been dogs. Well they would have been dogs if they had skin on their bodies, didn't have razor sharp teeth, and their feet didn't disappear into balls of flame. "I'll use my loyal hell hounds to find him!"

Seeing the snarling and vile look in the two creatures eye sockets, Shion timidly asked. "Will they just find him or will they find him and rip him apart?" Normally such a question would have been seen as a joke. But Asuka's pets weren't normal. Seconds later the hellhounds vanished.

With a guilty look on her face, Asuka sat down again, "Oops I forgot about that. I doubt we would have found even a trace of him had my babies found him." Seeing the looks of abstract horror on the faces of the other women. "What I said I was sorry!"

The six women lapsed into silence as each thought about what to do. None of them wanted to admit that unless the kidnappers made a move they'd have no hope of a rescue mission. Their salvation came in the form of a small paper airplane that landed in the center of the table. Attim reacted first and grabbed it. "It's a picture of a boat, and it has the harbor in the background….THEY'RE TAKING HIM OUT OF THE COUNTRY!"

Jumping to there feat, Misato, Kos-Mos, Attim, and Asuka rushed out of Nerv and towards the harbor, just as the angel siren sounded. Misato didn't hear the alarm until she and Asuka were already driving towards the marina. Calling Nerv on her cellular phone, "We can't fight that angel until we get Shinji back! N2 it!" And they nuked it, sadly however the angel was at the marina.

-So Attim has made her return-

Falling to sides of the walkway, Milly Thompson and Meryl Stryfe braced themselves against the walls. Having just spent a rather delightful hour talking to their captive, the two friends were perplexed. "Gee I don't know Meryl, I don't think this is such a good idea anymore. You said he was going to be a loudmouth and cruel soldier."

Adjusting her white overcoat after the fall and putting the one escaped derringer back in its place, Meryl was in agreement. "I thought this was going to be different. I didn't realize he was so young, but we already got paid for this." Opening the nearby door and entering the common area the duo saw the remaining three kidnappers-sans the boss. "He's been fed again."

'He was so sweet despite what we're doing to him. I feel bad doing this,' Milly thought as she took her seat at Meryl's side. "Are you guys sure this is a good idea?"

Yomiko, who had just returned from her betrayal of the group looked down. Shampoo was making her plans to escape with him, but the last member was most adamant. "He has to stay away from Tokyo-3! We can never let him back!" The shrill voice was to high pitch for the adults to stand.

"Sailor Chibi-Moon must quiet!" Shampoo yelled as she covered her ears. The four adults had no idea why a child was with them, why said child was wearing a ridiculous costume, or why she hated the nice boy so much. "No talk loud!"

"Shut up you idiot!" Meryl yelled at both Chibi-Moon and Shampoo. Not being very understanding, Meryl like the other kidnappers thought Shampoo was a bit slower than the rest, and was hired for her brute strength alone. "And what is your problem with him anyway kid?"

Fumbling with her fingers, Chibi-Moon debated on whether to tell the truth or not. "If he lives I might not. My mother abandoned my father for him! If he goes back to Tokyo-3…if he goes back!" The fear of non-existence filled Chibi-Moon and she started crying.

Being the kind woman she was, Milly embraced the girl with a small hug. "Its ok, you're parents are probably not talking because your father is gay or something, not that anything is wrong with that." While the others in the room looked at Milly like she'd lost her mind, where in fact she was totally right, Chibi-Moon looked at Milly and smiled.

-Who is more evil than Sailor Chibi-Moon I ask you-

"So is that the ship?" Kos-Mos asked the assembled four women. The tanker ship in the distance was slowly vanishing into the horizon. Stepping up next to Kos-Mos, Attim took out a pair of binoculars and confirmed the identity of the ship. "So what do we do now, thanks to Katsuragi's excellent plan?"

Standing between the would be saviors and the ship that held their target was…twin angels that loved playing together. Israfel A and Israfel B loved playing shadow double, and where having a fun time of it until the big firecracker went off by them and scared them into a fit of crying.

Witnessing first hand the singed flesh of the giant monstrosity, Misato shook her head. "How was I to know it would be in our way! Asuka we need to get you back to Nerv and in Unit-02. Then we come back and kill it!" It was a sensible plan Unit-02 should be able to handle a lone and immobile angel on its own.

Turning her vision from the helpless victim to Misato, "Why don't I just kill it now?" Asuka asked wondering. She could do it easy with it immobile. One quick blow to the core and bang they'd be back on the way to saving her vassal and punishing those foolish enough to take him.

"I agree with her Katsuragi," Kos-Mos stated as she readied her X-Buster. Standing next to Asuka who knelt close to the ground and summoned a large spear from the earth. Taking aim at the unknown twin cores both women gave a nod and Asuka launched her spear while Kos-Mos fired.

Attim and Misato's show was quick as each attack penetrated one of the cores and the twins ran home crying. 'Why do we even have the Evangelion's now?' Misato wondered as Asuka gave Kos-Mos the thumbs up and joined the other two.

"Are we going to get my vassal back or what?" Asuka asked with triumph echoing in her words. Moments later Attim commandeered a speedboat and the four made their way out to sea and towards some very unlucky ladies.

-Easy way to kill an angel if you ask me-

Author Notes

Yes I know this chapter wasn't as funny but its still got its elements and the concept I think is great. Hope you liked it and I hope you continue to support this story. Next time the battle on the boat!

Ja mata

Zentrodie (zentrodie-at-secondimpact-dot-com)

Omake

Updated battle lines!

Those siding with Kos-Mos: Xeo, Konos the Grey, ScienceMonkey, Nicknack, DarkChuchuo, Sybian Machine, Final Max, Crrot, Sol bandus, Pandomine, Vaurnut, NickNack, Soulless, Sleepy Kitty, Deus, renzokuken-sama, James Ray Edwards, KevinEc, Alpha Draconis1, a fan3, Science Monkey, Darklion74, Serpent Spy, Soulless, Jin Kazemeijin, Kyubi, CheeseKing, Typhon, "The Man in the Pallid Mask," Cyber Angel One, Sideris, Anomaly27, Slayer6, SickToTheGore, Tempest Destiny, Le Bete Noir, Urtv 17, Ordinary Joe, Sideris Total: 39

Those wanting a Harem: deinku, VCR, Jon Cook (w/o Asuka), mc2rpg, Positron(for now), Hank, Finalfantasyxii, chan,ken, kins of Ireland, Mordamir, Kman, Valtiel, Epsilon, ShadowCascade, EchoGarrote, Vic, Frank the Bunny (Don't chain me up!), NateGold, Gord, Slake-Sama, Zemzaba, TheWickerMan, Dark Anomaly, Bobby, (Unknown mass), Masumune, Variable Creatue, Tyson, Drake Smith, Rusty Knight, Bonta-Kun ,Production, Messiah3, WingOmega, DarkStarlkerFan (and wait), Crono10, Aladeth, Vic, Idiot564, ChronoTravel, Blood of Odin Total: 39

Those siding with Rei: Otaku-Dman, Vibious, SoulFire, Macavity the Mystery Cat, Dark Machine, Philg, NickNack, Azurewind, Redmage2k, Rei-aka-Ayanami-chan, jennyjennie, rgreat, Katfum, Oni-Otaku, wiseman, Crimson Arrow, Player0, GoldmonX, Mak, Pert-kun, The Mad Shoe, Mattman65, Herder of cats, DeathScyth Total: 24

Those siding with Asuka: Kusinagi, Nova10, Vibious, Final Max, Kuracao, Razial the Damned, Redshadow64, xXx, Supereva0102, Asuka-fan, SOMEBODY, Supereva01, Knighsshadow, WarpWizard, Dude, Dragon's death, NefCanuck, Uniden, A/S Fan X 2, Edhunne, Old Fool Total: 22

Those siding with Blue haired girlsOrganized Kaos, Trikster , Kima Prideflame, Nick McC, Shinzaku, M.E.S.S, Total: 7

Those siding with Sasami: Doggystyle, razzor15, Vaurnut, Golden Kitsune, Total: 4

Those siding with Mana: Steve Vader, Chewy, Player 0 Total: 3

Those siding with Yui Ikari: Zang-Sama, Education, Imaginary404 total: 3

Those siding with Shion Uzuki: Remenants, Final Max Total : 2

Those siding with Misato: Kippenberger, JVR Total: 2

Those siding with Hikari: Amathyst Wind Total: 1

Those siding with Aisha Clan Clan: Bloody Angel X Total: 1

And there you have it! Kos-Mos is now on equal footing with the Harem! Can the android defeat ALL comers to the prize or will the sheer mass overwhelm her? The blue haired half angel has upstaged her half demon counterpart as Rei takes command over Asuka!

In a surprise move Yui Ikari has supplanted both Misato and Shion Uzuki and is climbing higher and higher after her son…lets not think about how I'll work that right now. Two new comers to the war have been found in Aisha Clan Clan and Sasami. Yes the wedding gift and the arranged wedding partner have officially staked their claim and their supporters will surely grow!

But who is in the wings? Attim M-Zak is back but will her inability to see Shinji in person keep her from gaining supporters? Will Kos-Mos kill all comers? What will happen in the next installment when these heroins of justice fight the kidnappers? Only time and your position will tell! So choose your sides now! And remember don't stick forks in light sockets!

Know you know and knowing is half the battle…G.I. JOOOOOOOEEEEEEEEEEEE


	13. Time for whoop ass

Standard Disclaimer

Well I'm sure some of you are a little upset at how late this chapter is in its release. The answer to why chapters to my works have slowed is easy I am now employed. Its not a good job, but a job none-the-less. Being full-time however I've found myself with less energy and more ideas. So it's a mix of good and bad. I'm writing now so…that shows I've not stopped.

Hope you can bear with me until I get used to the shift in my time availability and can resume regular updates. Well you're not really interested in what I have to say, you want to read more mayhem. So lets get on with it.

Yes, lets ya slacker!-

What We Make Of It

Chapter 13 Rescue Mission

Or

Don't stand in their way if you want to live

Five minutes into the drive after the escaping tanker ship, Misato summed up the progress, "Damn it!" Had Kos-Mos or Asuka been thinking earlier the current situation would not have escalated to the near panic state the would-be rescuers were having. "Didn't you two think that knocking that angel in the water would have caused a tidal wave?"

In true Asuka fashion, that being one of not caring, she shrugged. "And your plan was any better? Go back, get suited up, come back and kill it?" To the demon that plan was every bit as stupid as letting Ritsuko play with a chemistry set using her body. Looking back at the still smoldering corpse of her latest and greatest kill, "Its not like we can't still see them."

Using her vision enhancements, Kos-Mos was able to still follow the evacuating vessel. "They are now riding the wave away from us at speeds we cannot match." She'd be mad at Asuka to, had she not helped the demon to kill the angel. In their defense, it did seem like a good idea at the time. "Why don't Souryu-kun and myself simply fly out there and kill them all?"

While Attim was all for killing a lot of people right now, it wasn't those on the ship. Not really being as cruel as she was seen by the other three women, in actuality Attim was very similar to Misato in her often playful nature, sadly she was just to damn pissed to show it. "Aren't you afraid you'll rust?" her tone dripping with ire.

Asuka preempted Kos-Mos's reply, "I don't do water, sorry. Fire and water don't mix, and I really don't want to save my vassal while fully drenched." Looking over the side of the boat with contempt for the pure liquid nature water had, which was why it WAS water, Asuka's face contorted in a sneer. "Can't we take out their rotor or engine or something, you people are supposed to be smart?"

Yes Kos-Mos had the full knowledge of all human creation stored in her memory banks, but without her visor, accessing it was a real pain, it meant contacting Shion and asking for the limiter to be released, so that wasn't going to happen. Being more none for her actions and not for her mind, Misato just looked at the shrinking boat on the horizon. "We left without getting any heavy weaponry. Only thing that could take out that ships ability to move would have to come from under the water."

Attim nodded in agreement, in their rush to save Shinji the four had forgotten about exactly HOW they were going to do it. Had the contacted Washu, who was now just learning about the plot to kidnap Shinji from the newly awaken Sasami, she would have easily ended the problem. They had not done that however, so it's not pertinent at the moment. "Can you two fly us over with you?" Attim asked, her tone bordering on desperation, a feeling the other girls had thought she lacked.

Kos-Mos just shook her head. "I will solve this problem myself." Diving overboard before the assembled could ask her how she intended to 'solve' anything. Using her massive power to swim under the sea avoiding the underwater swells and utilizing currents to catch up to the ship, Kos-Mos was very thankful that she didn't actually need to breath.

Standing on the ocean floor and seeing the underside of the hull that contained her beloved Master, Kos-Mos pulled out the big guns. So while Asuka was commenting on how 'The big battery operated toy is probably fish food by now,' Kos-Mos was summoning one of her best toys. Drawing them from a sub-dimension, where all her nice playthings dwelled when not in use, Kos-Mos's hands extended to accept in each hand tri-barreled gattling guns.

If she were human, her arms would have snapped upon the weight of the massive weaponry, even when supported by water. When she let loose the fury of bullets at the spinning blades of the ships rotor, a humans arms would have turned to jelly. Technology was a true marvel as Kos-Mos wasn't human but technology, and soon the escaping ship became a derelict and ceased to move. Swimming back to the boat and her comrades a single thought passed via her neural net, 'I'm just getting started!'

And so am I! That's just the first scene-

Thanking whatever deity hadn't turned its back on him, Shinji was grateful that when the ship stopped its forward momentum but his hadn't stopped, that they placed him facing the bow of the ship. That was because he fell backwards and not forwards, while he didn't think he was attractive, he still didn't want to die via massive blood loss from his face. "Wonder what's happening, hope those ladies are alright."

Making her self-visible for the first time since starting the kidnapping, the mastermind was a trifle shocked to hear such sentiment from the boy. 'Odd, I thought humans were all vile and selfish creatures, yet he is not. Maybe that is why the Princess has chosen him for her vassal.' Shaking off the momentary feeling of pity, she had a mission and she wouldn't let anything stop her. Standing over Shinji's prone body, "How are you doing boy?"

His vision swimming, Shinji couldn't get a good look at the woman above him. 'Its not Redman-san as the voice is off. Milly and Meryl are always together so it's not them. Shampoo doesn't have good enough Japanese.' And as Chibi-Moon didn't want to speak to Shinji didn't know of her. "Who are you Miss?"

Clicking her tongue and waving her finger, Shinji's captor wished to remain unknown to him. It would make it easier to do what she had to do. Lifting his chair off the ground and looking at him squarely in the eye. "Why should I tell you that my lil cutie?" Pinching his cheeks with more strength than would have made it playful, her smile was absolutely wicked.

Trying his best not to wince in pain as the fingernails of the woman dug into his flesh, "I just wanted to know. I'm sorry if I offended you." It never came to Shinji's attention that he should be angry with the woman. He'd long since stopped caring about himself. Everything that happened to him, was supposed to, well all the bad, he didn't see the good. "Thank you for lifting me off the ground too."

'So this is the mighty human angel slayer,' the woman thought with must distrust. It didn't fly with her that such a timid and kind mortal could have done what she heard. 'Well seeing how I'm going to use him in my ploy, I guess I can tell him about myself.' Flexing her black wings out from her body, and flapping the two on her head. "You my dear little human can call me Morrigan."

His vision finally realizing that there weren't three of the woman but one, Shinji was able to finally see Morrigan clearly. Had he had a libido, Shinji would have found to woman very desirable. Her flowing green hair and her slinky form fitting red and black body suit pulling and pushing at parts of her body to maximize her assets. Unfortunately for the succubus, Shinji wasn't like the other men she had dealt with because he wasn't buying into her. "I'm pleased to meet you Morrigan-san. Can you tell me what's going to happen to me? The other ladies don't seem to know."

Irritated that he wasn't a drooling mass of flesh like the other men where that saw her, Morrigan chose to move on to phase two. Leaning closer to Shinji's face, nearly a breath away from him, the demoness clasped her hands around the boy. One was around his neck, the other his ear. "They don't know because I haven't told them yet. You see it was my plan to kidnap you. Sadly I don't have any plans for your release." The hand encasing Shinji's ear slowly tugged at the boy's head and exposed his neck.

The fear of death, which had been lulled to sleep in the sea of pleasant conversation and excellent food, had been revived in Shinji. It didn't come from the closeness of the woman, or her tone, which was very unpleasant it came from the two tiny sharpened teeth he saw growing in Morrigan's mouth. "You…you aren't going to release me?" Shinji asked in a near whisper as fear stole his breath. Being a permanent captive could result in many bad things, and they all flashed in Shinji's mind.

The emerald tresses swayed as Morrigan shook her head. "Sorry hun, but you're my trophy, and trophies don't speak." The moment the last syllable reverberated in Shinji's mind and his eyes shot to full size, Morrigan sank her fangs into his neck. 'I'll lock his mind away from his body and I'll have a nice decoration for when the Princess shows up.' Feasting upon Shinji's blood, Morrigan was away of something else. 'Oh sweet Satan! This blood…its…its beyond description!'

Morrigan would have drained Shinji completely had her silent companion not slashed her face with claws. "Morrigan! You can't kill the boy! Its not right!" Why Felecia had opted to join Morrigan was beyond the succubus's reason. They weren't friends, and had often fought one another, but Morrigan couldn't keep the pussycat down. Lifting Shinji's face up and looking into his eyes, which were now devoid of emotion, Felecia was saddened. "You went to far with this one, if I wasn't here he'd be dead, and then were would we be?"

"We'd not have a hostage I know," Morrigan drawled out in exasperation. She wanted more of his blood though. Never had she tasted such sweetness and power in a human, in anything else's blood. 'Truly he is a special mortal. Maybe I'll keep him around as my slave.' Watching Felecia unshackle the boy and heft him over her shoulder, "Come lets go to the my room, our guests should be arriving soon." The sudden sound of gunfire confirmed her suspicions. The party had started.

Yes Morrigan is a bitch and Felecia is another cat girl…so sue me-

Checking her ammo again, Misato cursed the rashness of the mission again. "Why don't they stay down?" the frantic captain yelled at her fellow combatants. The stealthy infiltration mission lasted a whole five minutes, then Kos-Mos's rather heavy footsteps, well the echo them, alerted the countless hoard of minions that they had been boarded. "We don't have time for this!" Misato yelled again as she shot a paper man, who after falling apart recollected himself and pressed on.

Attim was dealing with what the sailor Senshi knew to be a yoma, to her it was just a odd pink monstrosity that oozed with many bad sexuality jokes. "We'll never get to him at this rate. For every one of them we take down two replace it!" Her fist pulverized the face of her opponent sending the beast to the deck of the ship. Moments later the bloody face fused together and the monster began to get back to its feat.

Finding a partner in Asuka, Kos-Mos fired her R-Cannon into the hoard of minions. "They will overwhelm us in five point seven minutes if this continues. Are energy isn't limitless. They will tire us into defeat." Her cool and calm, ok her emotionless voice didn't mesh with the seriousness of their situation. Her cannon was draining her reserves very quickly, yet they had yet to even see the 'paper bitch' as she was now lovingly called.

Lost in a feeling of familiarity, Asuka wasn't so much as fighting as she was setting things on fire. It came naturally to her, so it wasn't that tiring. Wave upon wave of fire flowed from her hands, not even one of the more powerful demonic tricks she had, but it worked nicely on the paper men, not so much the yoma. 'Why do I feel a demonic power here? Did somebody else come from hell? It better not be Laharl again!' Asuka had enough of her siblings while dealing with Grenda, and Laharl was just a pain in the ass at times.

Sensing the tide of the battle turning against them, Misato called out to group together. With an ally at their back they wouldn't have to worry about sneak attacks from behind. 'I really hate thinking about an unprotected backside,' Misato thought dismissively and momentarily saw an image of Shinji in her mind. "Rally in the center people!" Her ammo was slowly draining and that was a bad thing.

For once not thinking Misato a total idiot, just a partial one, Attim and Kos-Mos agreed and drew in close on the deck. If worse came to worse the two elder women, and the almost human, would hold off the assault while Asuka went in for the rescue. But salvation came from a most unexpected source, a tiny cute and cuddly instrument of doom.

Opting to conserve her energy, Kos-Mos switched to her R-Blade and while she was extracting the blade from a yoma she was the first to hear the sound. "Was that a meow?" asked Kos-Mos to her engaged compatriots. They didn't answer as a slew of lazar fire erupted on the deck of the ship, obliterating the majority of the foes. Ryo-oki had arrived and the cabbit was pissed.

Firing ionized death from her countless turrets the cabbit was joyfully following Washu's orders in the assault. Loving Sasami more than anything save a nice carrot, the cabbit was devastated to see the princess crying over the kidnapping of Shinji, who she rather liked as well being her new supplier of carrots. Meowing a ferocious warcry that sounded to cute to be threatening, the cabbit continued to fire indiscriminately. Over the crisp ocean air, Washu's voice bellowed. "You idiots! I could have put an end to this long ago had you TOLD ME about it!"

Having witnessed first hand the capabilities the flying warship had, Attim for a moment had to agree with Washu. Not meeting her first though, Attim hadn't thought such advancements in technology existed, they didn't on Earth but that didn't matter now. "To late for that, we move on!" To that cry Attim met with no resistance. Leaving Ryo-oki and Washu to tend to, that means kill, any stragglers who had the audacity to not be dead yet.

Ryo-oki is to cute to be feared, odd isn't it?-

Back in the relative safety of Nerv a small assembly had gathered in Shion's lab. The bridge crew had gathered to watch their captain fight. All of section two was there to watch their champion fight onward, they had nothing but respect for Attim. Shion was in attendance to give advice and watch for Shinji's safe recovery. And lastly in the back of the room, Rei and Sasami sat together, enemies in arms, hoping for the best and upset to be left behind.

Cheers went out of the room, which had been drawn into silence as the odds started to go bad, as the tiny scientist yelled at the others to get their asses in gear. Nobody really questioned why Shion had jacked into Kos-Mos's visual inputs, because that would mean they thought about it. To the majority of Nerv, a battle was something they would never take active part of they would just watch it. Makoto broke out the chips and soda, while Shigeru started playing his guitar in increase the sense of drama. It was a grand party for those not immediately in the line of fire.

"I could have helped them!" Sasami cried softly as she prayed for the safety of her guardian and pet. The whole fainting spell was embarrassing yes, but she chalked that up to shock. Rei wasn't quite as agreeing.

Yet to read anything new her old personality still was in effect. "What would you do, have a panic attack and hit something with a pot or pan?" The semi-smile on the pale girl's face was a façade. Had she been in the battle she would have been helpful, or so she thought, hoped. As much as she ridiculed Sasami about being too timid to do anything, she was just as bad. 'What if something has happened to him already? What if there are to late?'

"I could have turned into Pretty Sammy! I…could…I could have helped too…" Sasami's voice broken and stuttering betrayed her feelings of helplessness and fear. Watching the battle unfold was horrific to both blue haired girls. Silently and without even knowing it, the two girls' hands encased the others. They needed support and while they didn't really like the other, it was the only thing available at the time.

Rei was the first to notice how her hand wasn't empty. "If you tell anybody about this I will skin you, you know that right?" Sasami blushed softly at the realization, and at how Rei's hand clenched a little tighter. A look passed between the ruby red eyes and the soft pink eyes that spoke of the possibility of friendship between them. With a smile Sasami promised not to say a word about it. Then they returned to watching the monitor, both hoping for a happy outcome.

Sasami has that affect on people-

With their asses covered by what Misato could have sworn sounded like the adorable freak Sasami kept as a pet, the foursome ventured deep into the confines of the ship. "Its to quiet, where are the real kidnappers?" Misato asked as she checked her clip for the countless time.

Attim, who was in the lead, had to agree that something felt wrong. With so much of a force present as they arrived surely they hadn't saw the last of the opposition. "We just have to keep…" Attim's speech was cut short as a large ball on a stick slammed into the metal door she had just opened. The strike force was left in shock as the ball crumpled the enforced door like tinfoil.

Smirking at the shock on the would-be liberators faces Shampoo was looking for a good fight. "Shampoo no let you hags go forward. Shampoo stop you here!" Falling back into the hallway, Shampoo dropped into a defensive position. "Me no let you take boy, boy mine!"

"Hell no he is you purple haired freak!" Asuka yelled out from the back of the line. Trying to push past the other three and sink her fangs into the Amazon's neck, or failing that burn her to ash, Asuka was stopped by Attim's extended hand. "What the hell are you doing?" Asuka asked politely and with only a little fire escaping her lips.

Kos-Mos was holding back Misato who hadn't cared for the purple hair comment, looked at Attim questioningly. "If we all fight her we would win faster." It seemed logical enough, and in reality what could a human do to confront her energy weapons?

"We all can't move in the hallway, and I'm the most capable of fighting her," Attim said coolly as she sized up her opponent. Surely the stance the Amazon, Shampoo, had been a form of martial arts, and Attim wasn't about to lose in that category. "You fight me woman, and when I'm done with you, you'll be speaking proper Japanese."

Launching out of the doorway with speeds that only Kos-Mos could follow, Attim let loose all her fury on the Amazon. And it was a lot of fury. Think of a lot of fury, say your typical anime fans response to a fanfiction where his favorite character gets bashed. Multiply that fury by the fury the same fan has when the pairing in said fiction is in opposition to their wants. You'd be halfway to how furious Attim was. Shampoo lasted five minutes before she was tossed out a porthole and into the ocean.

The now cat vowed to find the black haired woman, kiss her, and then kill her most horribly. But now she had to swim back to China and receive special training from Cologne. 'Horrid lady to fast for Shampoo…Master need train more!' Back on the ship and totally amazed at the prowess Attim had just demonstrated, the crew headed further into the bowels of the ship, and soon found themselves in the holding compartments.

"You went easy on us didn't you?" Misato asked the panting and very tired looking Attim as they walked. The show she had just witnessed could have only proven her point. But something about Attim screamed the woman wasn't in any condition for another fight worried her. 'How much did that fight take out of her?'

As her subordinates back at Nerv were rubbing Attim's abilities in the faces of the bridge crew, Attim leaned heavily on Misato's shoulder for support. "I shouldn't have fought so hard. I…well lets just say I don't have a lot of stamina." What she meant was the more she fought, and the harder she fought, the sooner she would die. The other three lapsed into a silence almost reading Attim's mind. Misato smiled and said the next battle was hers.

Winner and still champion Attim M-Zak-

In the deepest bowels of the tanks, a succubus sat with her companion. Her thoughts were many, but most related to the reason behind the young Ikari's kidnapping. "Felicia, why are you here again?" Morrigan asked with a hint of lazy wonder in her voice.

Curled up on an oversized pillow in the modified captains quarters, the cat girl stretched briefly before nestling into the pillow again. "Just curious is all. Can't have you running around on Earth unsupervised now can we?" The cat girl turned nun, that wanted to be a star said happily as she gazed at Morrigan. Never let it be said the two liked each other. And the true reason Felicia had journeyed from hell with Morrigan was simple. Satan had asked her nicely to watch over Morrigan, and his daughter.

Wondering briefly if she could set the sparse white hair covering Felicia's otherwise naked body on fire before the cat could put herself out, Morrigan's thought wafted. "Then why won't you let me have more of his blood?" Morrigan asked as a feeling of need crept into her. The young Ikari's blood was the most wonderful thing she had ever tasted. The more she thought about it, the more she wanted to feast upon him. Yet from his blood, something had started to change in Morrigan that she hadn't realized.

"He's only human, if you drink to much he'll die. He's lost in his own mind right now thanks to you." Looking over in the corner where Shinji sat motionless and appearing dead, Felecia felt torn. Sure he was a human, but he was a cute and kind one, a rare breed. 'All this because Morrigan has an inferiority complex.' Shaking her head slowly, Felicia started to puzzle of how this was going to end. "They got past Shampoo already, and our golems."

The matter of fact way the damn cat had offhandedly remarked about the approaching group wasn't really something Morrigan liked. "Who cares? The others can stop them. And if they don't well just kill him before their eyes." Felicia could fancy she heard a moment's hesitation in Morrigan's voice. "I don't have a problem with a zombie trophy anyway."

Felicia's tail shot out firm and ridged as the full evil in Morrigan's intent was realized. Debating on how far to let the demoness go before stopping her, Felicia saw the door to the cabin open in a flurry of paper cards. Yomiko had been eavesdropping. "I can't let you do that!" Storming into her boss's room after only just meeting the woman, Yomiko couldn't let the green haired lady kill the well-read boy. Throwing a handful of paper stars at Morrigan, Yomiko was fully prepared to dispatch her employer.

Deflecting the deadly wood pulp with her wings, Morrigan licked her lips and grinned. "You think you can stop me Miss Paper?" Thrashing her wings and sending the assailants attack back at Yomiko, Morrigan stood up at full height and laughed. Redman tried to dodge the bevy of attacks and saved herself from a quick death at her own hand. "You couldn't hope to stop me," had Morrigan's voice had physical properties, it would have frozen the room. The last thing Yomiko saw before unconsciousness stole over her was Morrigan summoning a large cannon type devise and a blast of spiritual energy flying at her.

Guess our heroines won't have to fight Yomiko-

While Felicia tended to Yomiko to insure the Paper hadn't been burnt, Misato opened the door to the next compartment. The empty cargo room had two occupants, and from what Misato could tell, they weren't there to offer them refreshments. "I suggest you two get out of our way." Following Misato into the room, the four spread out and stood abreast to one another and looked at the opposition.

Milly turned to Meryl, "They aren't men like we thought are they Meryl?" Having expected a rescue party, the two had fully been waiting for a squad of heavily armed men to be their opponents. In which case they would have taken them out without hesitation.

"Sorry Miss Hotpants, its our job to insure you don't get any further. So I suggest," Meryl tossed Misato, who she guessed was the leader a white box. "You take these donuts as a parting gift and turn around." Sensing the upcoming battle growing in her soul, Meryl sighed in exasperation. 'Why don't we ever have accurate information?"

Opening the box to find the delicious glazed treats Misato took one threw it in the air and shot it even more full of holes. "Now unless you want that to be your head, get the HELL out of our way. We're not leaving without Shinji." A nod came from the others at her sides. Only death would stop them now, and with Asuka with them, death might not have stopped them either.

Meryl looked over at Milly, who looked like she really didn't want to be there, and said regrettably. "We don't have a choice. Lets do this and get out of here." And so the battle began, Milly ran right, followed by Asuka, while Meryl ran left with Misato in pursuit. Kos-Mos held on to the still weakened Attim and hoped. Cursing her over abundance of power. If she were to shoot even once and miss in the underwater hull, she'd put a hole in the ship and drown everybody.

"What do you think you can do to me?" Asuka said confidently to the towering form of Milly. Hunching over and looking Milly in the eye, Asuka was in full intimidation mode. "You believe you can even think of hurting me?" To prove her point Asuka slammed her fist into the steel floor and left a massive dent. Standing up straight, Asuka's extended palm began to glow with unholy fire. "I don't think you can," the light in her palm reflecting off her horns would have sent chills down even the sturdiest of men.

As Asuka spoke, Milly smiled pleasantly at her, if she heard the vulgar and vile things Asuka was saying, she didn't show it. Taking aim at the demon princess, Milly fired. Striking Asuka directly in the chest, Milly was relieved to see Asuka lying on the ground. "Sorry, but I can't lose. I'm afraid you'd do scary things to that boy if you 'save' him." Milly could easily see Asuka traumatizing the captive for life. Not as if kidnapping wasn't a very traumatizing thing.

Her vision swam as she gazed angrily at the ceiling. 'Didn't she know she was supposed to let me finish my speech before attacking?' It always happened in all those shows she watched back in hell, so why didn't it really happen? Had television lied to her? The light above her head slowly stopped being three lights and regrouped into one. Her fists wrapped around the metal 'X' that was still pressed against her chest. Slowly getting back to her feet, Asuka saw the look of shock on Milly's face. "You're going to pay for that."

So while Asuka started hurling fireballs and jumping off walls try to as she frankly put it, 'Carve your insides out and make your throat a tie,' Misato aimed her sidearm at her own opponent. "Listen little man, the boy is very important to me, and if you think I'm going to let you keep him. You're the dumbest man on the planet," Misato ended her dialogue by drawing a bullet into the chamber of her weapon.

For a moment Meryl just stared at Misato in shock. Sure she wasn't overflowing with femininity, nor did she have the fullest bust line, but she was hardly manly in appearance. "BITCH! I'm a woman!" Meryl finalized her sentence by drawing one of her many derringers and firing at Misato's skull. 'Doubt she'd die if I shot her in the brain, she doesn't have one!'

The surprise of learning that the shorthaired man was really a woman was what saved Misato's life. She had hunched over in shock as the bullet flew over her head and implanted itself in the wall behind her. "But you're so…so…flat and so overbearing, what else could you be but a man?" Misato said mockingly as she started to fire her own weapon.

Firing back insults as well as bullets, the two women quickly ran out of ammo, as well as immature comments. Holding her empty service weapon out, attempting to bluff her opponent, Misato hated herself for her apparent failure in Shinji's rescue. 'If I was like those others…I wouldn't be so reliant on my gun. If I was like them I could be of more help…but I'm not. I'm just a human. How can a human compete with them!'

"Just going to point that thing at me now? Did your brain stop working finally?" Meryl jibbed as she held her own last two empty derringers at Misato. If she could get the other woman to back down and leave, she'd not have lost the dual. "If you want to crawl home and give up, I'll let you. It'd be a crime against humanity to kill such a stupid person." Meryl felt bad about saying such cruel things, even in anger, but she was at a loss with her ammo spent.

Battling her own insecurities as well, Meryl's comment throbbed in Misato's mind. Sure she wasn't the most intelligent person. She wasn't the most attractive, and she didn't have special powers like seemingly everybody else. But she could see Shinji in her mind, and he didn't care about things like that. 'The hell with this woman, if I'm going to die I'm going to die fighting for him!' Welling up her anger and frustration in a scream, Misato threw her empty sidearm at the stunned Meryl. The heavy metal weapon bounced off Meryl's face and took all thought from the woman's mind.

In a fluke of nature, Meryl's unconscious body fell backward and hit Milly. The moment of distraction was all Asuka needed to end her own battle. While the larger woman had kept Asuka at bay with her stun gun, the moment Milly turned to see how Meryl was Asuka charged in. Using her horns as a weapon, Asuka slammed her head into the taller woman's stomach and stole the breath from Milly. Hunching over, her eyes glazed over in shock and pain, Milly was out. The two friends lay on the floor by each other with Asuka standing over her fallen foe. "I'd kill you, but I have somebody to save right now."

Misato recollected her projectile and gave Asuka thumbs up, another two down. Attim actually smiled at them, "Not to bad, remind me not to let you spar with Shinji Asuka." Patting the demoness on the back, they headed to the doorway at the end of the corridor. They were reaching the end of the ship and that meant they would find Shinji.

So Asuka fights dirty, did you expect any less?-

She could hear the sounds of gunfire from her guard position. With each loud bang and shrill yell, she could feel fear gnawing at her mind. But if she didn't hold her place, if she didn't keep that boy, Shinji, from going back to Tokyo-3, despite what Milly said, she might not exist. Chibi-Moon loved her mother, even though she might not act like it, she loved both her older and younger mother dearly. 'I don't want to die,' no that was wrong, if she failed to keep Usagi and Mamoru together, she wouldn't be alive to die.

The sounds of battle subsided anticipation and fear crawled up Chibi-Moon's body. If Milly and Meryl won, then she would be safe, if they failed she'd have to stop them. Chibi-Moon made it a point not to see or talk to Shinji, as with each of her fellow kidnappers stories, she reasoned he was far from a bad guy. By not meeting him, she could go along with the plan. "I'm sorry Ikari-san, but I want to exist," tears started filling her pink eyes as she thought that only in the boys death could she live.

A creaking door broke her from her worries, the duo had failed and now her life, her existence was in jeopardy. Many couldn't understand her, a child with an adults mind. Forced to undergo far to many hardships than a child should. It made her cold, hard to understand, and very easy to hate. But deep down Chibi-Moon was a scared child. "Stop in the name of the new moon!" Her battle cry rang out from her trembling lips as she saw the approaching people.

Dread and hopelessness followed. Kos-Mos alone looked as if she could tear her down. 'And she's not alone, three others are with her…how can I stop them!' She didn't know how, but for her life she had to succeed. She remembered begging the other Senshi to help her, but they said Shinji was a nice boy, Usagi's eyes even got wistful when Chibi-Moon mentioned him. 'He's corrupted them.'

Misato turned to the others as the high-pitched yell resounded in the small room. It was bigger than the hallway but smaller than the cargo room, the new room allowed for all four of the rescuers to enter and see the young child. "What are you doing here?" Misato asked confused. They'd been fighting very capable people, yet here at what seemed the end of the line was a child.

"PINK-SUGAR HEART ATTACK!" the pink haired Senshi yelled as she held out her wand. The attack didn't even reach the four who looked on with a combination of pity and relief. Yelling her attack out again Chibi-Moon's eyes welled with tears, she was going to die because she was to weak, to young to face such foes.

Cracking her knuckles Asuka eyed the young brave warrior up like a cat does a mouse. "Who wants this one? I'm in the mood for a little relief," flexing her growing claws before the frightened eyes of Chibi-Moon, Attim was torn. The modified human didn't want to harm a child, but the child had sided with the other kidnappers. Kos-Mos had long ago deemed Chibi-Moon not a threat and was about to walk past her. Misato just gawked at how eager Asuka seemed to tear into the flesh of the child.

Chibi-Moon managed to eep out a small demand that they stop and leave, but her fear had stolen any sense of authority she tried to give. Moments later, as Asuka's grin widened and she approached her pray, a very powerful voice called out from behind them. "STOP RIGHT THERE!"

The full power of the voice and caused everybody to stop at once and look at the approaching woman, followed closely by four others. "W…who are you?" Attim asked, sensing the power radiating from all of them. It didn't take a genius to notice that all six, if they included the young child, were wearing the same getup, that of sailor suits adorn with big bows and tiaras.

"The champion of Justice! I will right wrong and triumph over evil. I AM SAILOR MOON!" the blond girl's voice full of conviction and strength it moved the four women. The pose on the other hand, looked out of place and slightly perverted. In the young voice, Misato felt a sudden kindred spirit, as if she had heard the voice before but couldn't place it.

Running past Asuka and into Usagi's waiting arms, Chibi-Moon cried. "Sailor Moon, I…I can explain everything!" Held protectively in her mother's arms the young child felt content and safe. "I…I helped them kidnap him to stay alive…if he lives I'll cease to exist!" Her words were muffled as she pressed her face into Usagi's chest and cried.

Everybody just looked at Chibi-Moon with pregnant confusion. What the hell is she talking about the rescuers thought, while the Sailor Senshi had a small idea. Rubbing Chibi-Moon's head and scooping her into her arms, Usagi wiped Chibi-Moon's eyes and talked as soothingly as possible. "Are you worried that since Mamoru and I broke up you'll not be born?"

Misato, after hearing that had officially checked into her own private world where such concepts made sense. 'How can she worry about being born if she's hear! Its not like she's from the future or anything!' Similar thoughts were in Attim's head and Kos-Mos's neural net, but they were like Misato and couldn't figure it out. Asuka, in the presence of 'Champions of Justice' had the urge to fight them in the name of her demonic heritage, but quelled the urge Shinji came first.

Usagi hugged Chibi-Moon tightly as the young child nodded and admitted her fears. "Silly child, we can use artificial insemination or some other means when the time for your birth arrives. Come lets go" Walking out of the room as swiftly as they entered, the Sailor Senshi never once stopped to question who had been kidnapped. Because if they knew it was Shinji, they'd have smashed Chibi-Moon's head against the wall as a punishment. Hey they all were already in love with him, Rei and Makoto, or in the process of falling for him, Usagi, Ami, and Minako.

"Ok, that was strange," Misato finally said after five minutes of silence. Looking past where Chibi-Moon had been standing was the last door. The door behind which Shinji was being held captive. "Whose ready to end this and go home?" Misato asked gruffly as she reached for the door handle, Asuka's hand quickly drew Misato away from the door as it was blew away from its hinge in a blast of white flame, "Oh what the hell now!" Misato yelled as Asuka tossed her away from the carnage.

Sensing the demonic energy growing Asuka rushed into the spacious captains quarters. "I should have known it was you!" A growing sensation behind her, Asuka's hand flew backward and a wall of flame erupted in the doorway sealing the others outside. Asuka's eyes narrowed as she realized who was behind her vassal's abduction. "Morrigan, what demon did you have to sleep with to get to earth?"

Sitting on an altered version of the captain's chair, which now looked like a mini thrown, Morrigan rested her finger on her chin. "I don't want to talk about that, princess. After all the fun you've been having, can you really complain?" The succubus leaned forward and rested her chin on her palm. 'The bitch wants to fight me alone does she?' It was the only reason Morrigan could think for Asuka blocking the entrance.

"Where's my vassal, where is Shinji Morrigan?" Asuka's anger grew slowly and steadily causing flames to lick and jump from her body. Sensing movement at her side, Asuka shot an arrow of flame at the movement Felicia fell back in shock. "Damn it! Daddy's little watchcat is here too?"

Morrigan's eyes lanced Felicia, "Daddy! You work for Satan? Damn it Felicia! I thought you were on my side!" Well Morrigan's trust was misguided who knew demons could lie right? Offering Morrigan a weak shrug, Felecia said Satan had sent her to watch over Asuka and she just tagged along for the ride with Morrigan. "No matter, your vassal is now my trophy, willing to abide my every command."

Stomping her foot, and sending shockwaves so far down into the earth's core that it caused an earthquake in California, Asuka didn't believe it. Morrigan's jealousy of Asuka's power had gone to far. It started out simply enough back in hell where Asuka had been better and ramming the pineapple up Hitler's butt, and now it ended here. "I don't believe you, bring him out!"

"With pleasure," Morrigan drawled as she rang a bell at her side. Silently and almost automatically, Shinji's pale body walked out from the darkened corner and knelt at Morrigan's side. "See how obedient he is? Such a cute little puppy he is." Morrigan ran a finger across Shinji's cheek. "I've sent his soul deep into the back of his mind. And I've been waiting for you to arrive to consummate our bond as master and slave."

Having known Shinji only a short while, but knowing so surely that he was to be her loyal vassal, Asuka was two seconds away from breaking off Morrigan's wings and beating her to death with them. "I would suggest you don't. I would very much suggest you let him go, now!" The flames at the door dying down low enough for the others to see into the room. They had heard all of the dialogue and all felt hate so great that it could have destroyed Morrigan in an instant if given the smallest power.

Patting Shinji's cheek and sending him back to his corner, Morrigan laughed. "Or what princess? You'll fight me? Try and kill me? You know I've more brute strength than you, and with my puppy under my control, will you risk it?" Another laugh erupted from Morrigan's body. Now even Felicia was growing upset, Morrigan had gone to far. "You do want to fight me alone don't you? That's why you're keeping your little friends outside."

That was when Asuka's face broke into a very dark smile. "You think I was keeping them out so I could fight you? No, that's not what I was doing." Asuka looked at the doorway and right into Kos-Mos's eyes. "I was keeping her out so I could talk to you and find out what you did and why."

Following Asuka's gaze and seeing Kos-Mos, Morrigan was perplexed. "What are you talking about little girl? I don't see anything that's a threat. But no matter, I'll add their souls to my growing collection anyway after I've finished with you."

Asuka's laugh filled the room, deafening the would be usurper. "Bitch, that 'thing' out there is what I'm holding back, and you know what, to hell with it. Kos-Mos get her!" Lowering her wall of flame, Asuka walked towards the Misato and Attim. "Don't say I never did anything nice ok?"

Kos-Mos only nodded to Asuka before turning to Morrigan, "Bitch, when I'm done with you, you won't even have a soul." Kos-Mos's eyes turned a fierce blue as she charged the succubus with her R-Scythe formed. Morrigan had only a brief second to realize the battle was started before the blade slammed into her wing shield.

Outside the battle, well it wasn't so much of a battle as it was a beat down. Shion back at Nerv made the comment that Kos-Mos had not only opened a can of whoop-ass but was also slamming a case of it down Morrigan's throat. Asuka was quick and to the point with the other two women. "We have to get my vassal out of there. Morrigan might try and kill him before she loses. I'd do it but I'm to weak."

Looking into the room as Kos-Mos slammed Morrigan's head into the floor and telling the succubus that it's was going to taste better than her fist was going to, Misato asked. "How do we break him out of it? We can't risk dragging him like that out of the room. We have to snap him out of it!" The look of emptiness in Shinji's eyes hurt all three to see.

"A strong emotional surge should do it, it works back in hell. But what we do is show them a loved one being castrated…but positive emotion should work too." Asuka said with a knowing look. "But we have to get to him without Morrigan of Felicia seeing us! Its impossible!"

Having her chance, Attim looked at Misato. "I'm going to get him, get ready to go." Suddenly and much to Misato and Asuka's disbelieve Attim started stripping. Standing before the women totally nude, Attim could guess their questions, which were if you don't know were 'why the hell are you getting naked?' Using her mind to start the process, Attim's body slowly faded from view. "Thermoptic camouflage. It's from Section-9 but only works if you're nude. It doesn't make clothing invisible."

Thinking the Section-9 agents were perverts, Misato looked at where she thought Attim was. "What are you going to do for an emotional stimulus?" Had Misato been able to see Attim, she would have seen the blush forming on her face. "Attim? You still here?"

She wasn't. Thinking about how to cause an emotional charge in Shinji, Attim was going to get her believed only chance to physically show her love for the boy. Racing across the room, now smeared with a lot of blood and more than one large dent, Attim reached Shinji's side. Looking into his empty eyes, Attim whispered softly into his ear. "My love," then she kissed him softly on the lips.

Shinji's eyes widened quickly as he felt but couldn't see something touching him. Then he felt his body being hoisted in the air and two firm yet soft things touching his back. The shock of the events so great that he couldn't question anything, his mind was too weak. "And stay down!" Kos-Mos roared over the fallen and very badly beaten Morrigan.

Back at Nerv Ritsuko was pale with fear at the beating she had seen Kos-Mos administer. 'I wonder if the hull can handle that amount of damage?' the blond thought as the smashing sound was heard over the intercom, her question was answered, it couldn't.

Racing as fast as possible out of the death trap that the ship had become, nobody saw Felicia picking up Morrigan and teleporting back to hell. Shinji only continued to feel the heat and pressure on his back as he, to him, was flying out of the ship. Soon back on the speedboat, all five finally relaxed. Misato and Kos-Mos shared a knowing look as Attim failed to turn off the camouflage. 'She doesn't want him to know she exists.'

They would keep Attim a secret for now, having saved Shinji's life she earned that much. Seeing the shock still on Shinji's face, Misato wrapped the boy in a fierce hug, and was soon followed by Asuka and Kos-Mos. When he started crying softly and thanking them for risking their lives for him, they hugged him tighter and knew that they would have come alone if needed. When they arrived back at Nerv, Shinji was greeted by his fiancé who smiled, cried harder than he had and hugged him again.

Sadly for the boy, his shock riddled mind hadn't connected the dots of feelings the women had shown for him. To him, it was only relief that a pilot was alive, and he really wanted to go to sleep. This ordeal was done, for now.

And it's a happy ending, but the story isn't over-

Author Notes

No this isn't the last chapter of WW if that's what your thinking. This thing is just to much fun to write. Its odd, its weird, and totally off base, but hell, if you like it, I like it, then whose to complain. Back to more funny stuff for the next few chapters, this arc had more seriousness to it because, if its always non-stop jokes, its not as funny I think.

If you mix in a little seriousness it makes the funny…more funny, I don't know. Oh and again thank you all for 'reporting' about Mercaba, she's a friend of mine and if you want to read that type of story based off of my story, go for it. Later people!

Ja Mata

Zentrodie (zentrodie at secondimpact dot come)

Omake

Updated battle lines!

Those wanting a Harem: deinku, VCR, Jon Cook (w/o Asuka), mc2rpg, Positron(for now), Hank, Finalfantasyxii, chan,ken, kins of Ireland, Mordamir, Kman, Valtiel, Epsilon, ShadowCascade, EchoGarrote, Vic, Frank the Bunny (Don't chain me up!), NateGold, Gord, Slake-Sama, Zemzaba, TheWickerMan, Dark Anomaly, Bobby, (Unknown mass), Masumune, Variable Creatue, Tyson, Drake Smith, Rusty Knight, Bonta-Kun ,Production, Messiah3, WingOmega, DarkStarlkerFan (and wait), Crono10, Aladeth, Vic, Idiot564, ChronoTravel, Blood of Odin, Kman,Razial the Damned, Warden, Zang-Sama, Jizzle the uncontrollable Jazzle, NefCanuck, ChronoTravel, Andrew Joshua, JWM Talon Total: 48

Those siding with Kos-Mos: Xeo, Konos the Grey, ScienceMonkey, Nicknack, DarkChuchuo, Sybian Machine, Final Max, Crrot, Sol bandus, Pandomine, Vaurnut, NickNack, Soulless, Sleepy Kitty, Deus, renzokuken-sama, James Ray Edwards, KevinEc, Alpha Draconis1, a fan3, Science Monkey, Darklion74, Serpent Spy, Soulless, Jin Kazemeijin, Kyubi, CheeseKing, Typhon, "The Man in the Pallid Mask," Cyber Angel One, Sideris, Anomaly27, Slayer6, SickToTheGore, Tempest Destiny, Le Bete Noir, Urtv 17, Ordinary Joe, Sideris, Absu7, B52, SilentAssasinMecha, Hokage-Sama Total: 43

Those siding with Rei: Otaku-Dman, Vibious, SoulFire, Macavity the Mystery Cat, Dark Machine, Philg, NickNack, Azurewind, Redmage2k, Rei-aka-Ayanami-chan, jennyjennie, rgreat, Katfum, Oni-Otaku, wiseman, Crimson Arrow, Player0, GoldmonX, Mak, Pert-kun, The Mad Shoe, Mattman65, Herder of cats, DeathScyth, Seraphy, TheCrawlingChaos Total: 26

Those siding with Asuka: Kusinagi, Nova10, Vibious, Final Max, Kuracao, Redshadow64, xXx, Supereva0102, Asuka-fan, SOMEBODY, Supereva01, Knighsshadow, WarpWizard, Dude, Dragon's death, Uniden, A/S Fan X 2, Edhunne, Old Foo, Deathaanimefan32l, Sledge Total: 22

Those siding with Blue haired girlsOrganized Kaos, Trikster , Kima Prideflame, Nick McC, Shinzaku, M.E.S.S, Total: 7

Those siding with Sasami: Doggystyle, razzor15, Vaurnut, Golden Kitsune, Omrianh Total: 5

Those siding with Mana: Steve Vader, Chewy, Player 0 Total: 3

Those siding with Yui Ikari: Education, Imaginary404 total: 2

Those siding with Shion Uzuki: Remenants, Final Max Total : 2

Those siding with Misato: Kippenberger, JVR Total: 2

Those siding with Hikari: Amathyst Wind Total: 1

Those siding with Aisha Clan Clan: Bloody Angel X Total: 1

It took a long time but finally Kos-Mos has been overcome by the sear overwhelming numbers of the harem, will she stay defeated, or will she return to the top! Only time and your vote can tell. In a surprise move, the harem's surge came mostly from deserters from the Asuka front, leaving the red head even more at the mercy of her blue haired rival.

Sasami is slowly making her way up the chart, and Aisha and Attim are waiting in the wings for a surge in arms. From this stance we now see why Kos-Mos stole the show this chapter and was rewarded with the right to deliver the beat down to reclaim Shinji.

But now that she is no longer in the lead a shift will occur in the events. And what is this? The Sailor Senshi? I see the Senshi on the horizon, but wait…there are more than five of them? Yes that's right, soon, very soon the Outer Senshi will appear!

Wave your chibi banners proudly and fight for your character! Only you the reader can tell me with your votes, who to focus on and who falls into obscurity! I mean…Hikari really isn't getting a lot of scenes now is she?

Good luck and God speed to all of you!


	14. Never trust a scientist

Standard Disclaimer

Yeah I've been a little lax in getting chapters out, but I have a good excuse. I've moved again! Yup moved into a nice place and with all the heavy lifting…I was to tired to sit down and type. But now I'm better and at the keyboard again! Hope you enjoy this chapter and continue to support my works.

Oh and F.Y.I. for those who missed the side note. Attim M-Zak is from a manga called "Seraphic Feather" Odd little story but its not bad.

And on this day I said…let chapter 14 begin!-

What We Make of It

Chapter 14- Recovery

Or

He just doesn't catch a break

Even before he opened his eyes, Shinji knew exactly where he was. He'd been there only a few times, but the western bed was something that was hard to forget. 'I really hate being stuck in the hospital,' Shinji thought as his body registered the thin gown covering his body and the sterile sheet. The nurse was a nice lady, but the rest of the hospital visit was awful. A sound emanating from his chest roused Shinji's eyes to finally open. The weight on his chest was to light to be a person, and due to the stress of his kidnapping, and since Shinji hardly remembered anything after Morrigan bit him, didn't expect anybody to be there.

"Meow!" Ryo-oki cried happily as the cabbit saw Shinji's eyes open. Jumping up and down on the boy's chest, Ryo-oki danced a merry jig. Shocked with the over abundance of cuteness the cabbit presented, Shinji just gazed at the furry creature and smiled. He was helpless to resist the cabbit's charms, much like all humanity.

Reaching out with his slightly weak arm, Shinji pet the brown hybrid behind her large floppy ears, much to her delight. And like any excited rabbit would, Ryo-oki's leg thumped happily against Shinji's chest. "Have you been watching over me?" Shinji asked the creature softly. With the many times he'd been in the hospital, and believing it was his own fault for being kidnapped, Shinji hadn't for a moment thought anybody else would have wanted to be there for him. Sending the telepathic signal to Washu, Ryo-oki meowed in agreement, nuzzled Shinji's cheek then fell asleep on his stomach.

Clearing her throat from the doorway to gain Shinji's attention, Kyoshi was overwhelmed by cuteness too. Her breath had been stolen from her body as she gazed her budding crush stroking the furry animal, which she thought was only mildly cute. No her attention was how Shinji's fingers moved, how happy he was with such a simple thing, and a momentary wonder if he could pet other furry things with equal skill. "Ikari-san, glad to see you awake," Kyoshi said with a smile as she walked over towards Shinji's bedside.

"Nakamura-san, hello. I didn't see you at the door," Shinji admitted. Whenever the nurse was around him, Shinji couldn't help but feel nervous. He couldn't take his eyes away from her face, or ignore how the short red hair gracefully curved around her face, or her bewitching emerald eyes. "Can you tell me…why I'm here? I can't remember much." Rubbing his temple, Shinji still could only remember a few sparse moments from the past chapter…I mean, the kidnapping.

Sitting at the chair that until the day before was never empty, Kyoshi found her eyes locked into the boys. "Sorry Ikari-san, I don't know what brought you here this time. You had severe blood loss but no visible wounds. Today's the first time you've been awake since you passed out four days ago." She'd been more worried than she thought she would have been for the boy. She'd seen many attractive men come and go from the hospital, dated more than her fare share of them too. But things just didn't work out, sadly the men she'd dated had been more lechers than gentlemen. 'They'd never turn down a sponge bath like this boy does.'

A chill went down Shinji's spine when he heard about the blood loss he had a clear image of what caused that incident. 'I wonder why Morrigan-san did it?' Shinji thought completely negating the fact she tried to kill him, all he knew was she must have had a reason. Sitting up in the bed, and doing his best not to wake the purring mound of fur nestled on his stomach, Shinji bowed as best he could to his nurse. "Thank you for taking care of me during that time…" Shinji's voice lost some if its power as he continued, "Has anybody came to visit me?" He doubted it, but he could hope.

Feeling the exact thing every woman did when they visited Shinji, Kyoshi was jealous upon being reminded that other women existed. So like them, she lied. "I saw a few Nerv personnel checking to insure you were going to be fine, but that was it." The tall tell signs of disappointment washed across Shinji's face and Kyoshi felt regret for but a moment, and then realized she could use the situation to her benefit. "But I'm here now if you want to talk or anything."

Offering the nurse his best smile, Shinji thanked her for the offer, "I'd be glad to talk with you, but I'm sure you have more important duties than tending to me…" Then a realization struck Shinji. Kyoshi had told him he'd been sleeping for the last four days, yet he didn't smell bad, and he surely had needed to perform required bodily functions. 'Had she…'

Seeing the blush rise on Shinji's face, Kyoshi's own smile widened slightly. "Speaking of tending, I'm actually here to administer your bath. I know you didn't want me to when you were last here, but yesterday I had no choice but to bathe you." Remembering the experience, Kyoshi felt a warmth in her stomach that wasn't necessarily a good or bad thing, it was really dependant upon you own perspective

His eyes fell upon the sponge and the water basin that Kyoshi had pulled out of a cart she had behind her, Shinji knew fear and humiliation more profound than before. "You mean…you…yesterday…I'm sorry!" It was the nurse's job, and she did enjoy it, but Shinji didn't know or care. All he knew was the attractive lady had seen him naked, and bathed him, so he wished he could either die or hide under a rock for all eternity.

Dipping the absorbent material in the basin and letting it fill, Kyoshi shook off Shinji's apology. "Now Ikari-san, it's my job to do this, and you're still too weak to do it yourself. So I can't let it slide this time, you don't want me to get fired do you?" Turning back to face Shinji, Kyoshi was glad that Muzino-sensei had given her this station. "This'll be over before you know it and you can be on your way home." Not that she wanted him gone, but with him out of the hospital, it allowed for more private settings.

As Kyoshi started drawing back Shinji's sheet, the door opened and dashed the nurse's plans. "There's my new guinea pig!" Washu chirped as she shoved Kyoshi away from Shinji's bed. "That'll be all miss um…whoever you are, my lil piggy here needs some tests and only I can conduct them." Being the scientific goddess she was Washu could already tell Kyoshi had more on her mind than her job, but Washu didn't care, and it was fun to torment these girls. Kyoshi managed to squeak out a goodbye before Washu shut the door and set her own eyes on Shinji.

"Washu-san, how are you today, is Sasami-san ok, Ryo-oki is here." Shinji asked as he smoothed the ruffled fur of the sleeping cabbit that the rustling sheets disturbed. It was beyond Shinji how a child was so intelligent, but he wasn't going to question Washu, something in his inner mind told him that wasn't a good idea. "Why are you wearing a nurse's outfit Washu-san?"

The small grin exploding into a wicked grin, Washu could feel a good cackle about to burst from her lungs. Washu had to inspect Shinji to insure her future plan for genetically infused super humans was still viable, and that meant testing Shinji, a lot. "Sasami's fine Shinji, she's at her first day of school. As for her," Washu picked the cabbit up by her ears and set her on the floor. "She's just been worried she lost her carrot supplier."

The sense of foreboding hadn't yet left Shinji's body it was in fact growing as Washu pulling on a pair of latex gloves. "You said something about tests Washu-san?" Had Shinji been aware of the full gambit of tests Shion imposed on him, Ritsuko drilled into him, and Misato observed drooling he'd have wondered what other tests hadn't been done on him, or what pictures hadn't been taken. Unconsciously drawing the sheets closer to his chest, "Will these tests take long?"

'I need a lot of samples…a lot of samples,' Washu thought giddily as she advanced upon Shinji. Applying the restraining device around his wrists and ankles Washu fastened the sensation cap on Shinji's forehead. "Well that is dependant on you Shinji and if my skills haven't gotten to rusty."

Thankfully for Shinji he passed out after Washu pulled out the wrong needle, it only had a needle a foot and a half long and was used for elephants, and scared him into a faint. Washu, although disappointed not to have a live audience was glad to get her samples.

Don't think to hard about that last part…I don't-

For her first day as a teacher in Tokyo-3, Chiyo Mihama was handling it fairly well. "PLEASE TAKE YOUR SEATS!" She cried for the twentieth time. The students didn't take a sixteen-year-old teacher seriously. Pulling on her longer pigtails now, Chiyo did what she was taught in University to do when the students didn't listen. She took out a microphone, put it next to the chalkboard and drug a nail across it. After the students stopped convulsing, "Thank you, as I said before you interrupted me, I Chiyo Mihama will be your new homeroom teacher, and you have three new students today."

Chiyo gestured to the three girls standing in front of the classroom. "Now if you will all be polite children," Chiyo stopped for a moment and held the nail to the chalkboard to insure cooperation, she smiled brightly, "We'll have them introduce themselves to us." Waving the first girl to start, Chiyo headed to her desk and sank into it. 'Maybe I should have stayed in the United States,' she thought for a moment.

Sasami took a step forward and tried to quell the nervous feeling in her stomach. "Hello everybody. My name is Sasami Jurai and I hope you all take care of me." Bowing politely to the class, Sasami hadn't anticipated the explosion of clapping, requests to be somebody's girlfriend, and the few requests to 'take it off and show us your money maker.'

The onset of boyhood dreams were crushed as Sasami stepped back and Asuka stepped up. "Listen flesh bags, you can call me Asuka Langley Souryu or Master." The confidence in her voice didn't sway the general populous. The Sailor Senshi sized Asuka up the instant they saw her, but sadly Asuka didn't recognize the Champions of Justice. Dodging a flying piece of chalk, Asuka deemed it time to show the pitiful mortals just what she was all about. In an instant the classroom as surrounded in flames and the greater demons of hell, then it turned back to normal. "I expect you all to be nice and I'll not do that again. I hope we can all be friends."

Trying to contain the urge to run screaming into the hallway, Kensuke couldn't take his eyes off Asuka's horns. "I thought you were lying when you said she was really a demon!" Touji, who had been just as scared as Kensuke, shook his head dumbly. It didn't take long for Kensuke to recover though and alter Asuka's status in the betting pool. 'Being in league with the darker forces could really help this girl to get Shinji.'

"Dude…we have to go to school with this girl now…and she said Shinji was her vassal what ever that means," Touji's mind still trying to wrap itself around the horrors it was just shown, much like the rest of the class. For once Touji didn't envy Shinji, because anybody that got that girl's attention had better live up to her expectations, or Heaven help them.

Rei didn't care much about Asuka or Sasami, she knew about them already. The only thing she cared about was Shinji was in the hospital and she had to be here because Misato ordered it. Sliding her copy of Tokyo Mew Mew back into her desk, and adapting to Ichigo, all Rei wanted was to go out on a date with her loving boyfriend Shinji. 'Asuka…she's the daughter of mother's ex-husband…does that make us related in some odd way?' As Rei's eyes fell onto the third girl however she felt a tightening of her chest and the impression that all was NOT well with the world.

The last girl stood forward and hid her mouth with her hand. "Hello…my name is Shinobu Maehara," checking to insure nobody was laughing at her, Shinobu continued. "I'm going to be starting school here as of today, and I hope you treat me well," Bowing as a good girl should, Shinobu's eyes fell onto Rei and felt something was wrong with the Universe, yet could sense a greater joy as well, but hidden.

Unknown to all non-angelic beings that means only Rei knew of it, time came to a sudden halt. The feeling of foreboding was so great, Rei just had to call home for a moment and check in. Putting her thumb to her ear and her pinky to her lips Rei connected to Heaven. "Hello this is Ayanami from Universe X speaking can you connect me to the divine databanks?"

A happy Cherub did exactly as asked, it wasn't everyday that one of the higher class of angels contacted them. Within nano-seconds Rei was connected to the Yggdrasil and was looking up the phone numbers to incarnations of herself, cross-referenced with the name Shinobu Maehara, she found two matches. "Cherub, connect me with Ayanami Rei from Universe O-1 and summon the Rei that died in Universe O-2."

Tapping her fingers in impatience, Rei hoped her mother wouldn't be upset that she altered the rules of the universe for her phone call, but something about that Shinobu girl just didn't sit well with her. The line connected, "Hello this is Ayanami Rei from Universe O-1 how may I help you…and make it quick I have to tend to my daughter."

"This is Rei from Universe X, what can you tell me about a girl named Shinobu Maehara?" Rei was quick and to the point, she always felt odd talking to other incarnations of herself. But the word daughter seemed good.

The bitterness from the other Rei wasn't lost on the original Rei, "Get rid of her if you have the chance, I have to share Shinji with her! And it's her daughter I have to care for because that bastard father of his didn't give me reproductive organs!" While Rei from Universe O-1 loved Shinji dearly, she still wasn't totally accepting of Shinobu in their tri-wedding. The line then disconnected and Rei from Universe O-2 was connected.

Being dead gave that Rei more time to watch others, and she spent the majority of her time perusing universes where she and Shinji lived happily. Beating the living Rei to the punch, the dead one was straightforward, "Kill the bitch! She took my Shinji away from me, she'll do the same to you if you let them meet! He'll feel sorry for breaking her school and then they end up together and I get the shaft!"

Disconnecting from the Yggdrasil, Rei looked at Shinobu and knew what she had to do. The other Reis' had informed her that if Shinobu were allowed to meet Shinji, than things wouldn't be how she wanted. Walking over to Shinobu, Rei picked the girl up, carried her down the hall to Class 2-C, dropped her off, and walked back to her seat and started time up again. 'I'll have to thank my other selves for the information.'

For the other people in the room all they knew was that the shy girl Shinobu suddenly disappeared before their eyes. Chiyo was quickly on her feet and trying to calm down the students when she saw what Rei had written on her papers regarding Shinobu, "It seems Shinobu-chan wasn't supposed to be in our class…so lets not think about this anymore ok students?" The total bizarreness of the event left the students in total agreement, never to mention the name Shinobu Maehara again.

Yes it's a joke about my old story Out of Disaster, but hey…I liked it-

Being a total bastard was fun most of the time, but lately Gendo hadn't had much opportunity to flex his evil powers. Looking at his appointment book Gendo was terrified and infuriated at the same time. Somehow the stockholders had learned either all of or partially about Shinji's kidnapping and hospitalization. And that was anything but a good thing for him, because they all wanted to talk to him. 'And they're all going to request he be relocated to their homes for safe keeping.'

Gendo was still going to whore his son out to the stockholders, but he didn't want to do it because he needed to, he wanted to do it because it was sick and wrong, and exactly what Gendo liked doing. 'Damn 'boy' if he was a girl this whole problem wouldn't have occurred. It's all his fault all of it.' Slamming the appointment book closed, Gendo dialed Ritsuko's number and left a voice message requesting her to come to his office, and to bring the bunny suit for later.

"Not thinking about backing out of our deal are you, Gendo-chan," a very menacing voice questioned from behind the bastard king's chair. If Gendo had a normal heart, it would have stopped upon hearing the cruelty promises inside that voice. Walking around from behind the chair and into Gendo's view, Chocolate lifted Gendo's chin with the hilt of her whip and Tira pulled a few strands of her spindle out just in case. Chocolate leaned over and pushed her leather hat back further on her head. "We'd hate to have to…punish you for any deceit."

Never having to go to the bathroom more in his life than now, Gendo nodded his head fiercely. "I was just about to call you two in. How are you both doing, Tira, Chocolate?" Having his authority taken away was a crime punishable by death, having a woman shame him was punishable by…well only Ritsuko knew, but to have both was reserved for only the Misu sisters…and they were the only ones that could get away with it.

Sitting on the armrest of Gendo's chair. Tira, without her glasses or clock on mind you, looked at the shine on her wire lazily as she pulled more off the spindle. "We heard some discomforting news Gendo-chan, and we were hoping you'd shed some light on it for us." Her gaze wafted over to the puddle of a man that had moments ago been the most powerful man on earth, in his own mind.

Stepping back behind Gendo and draping her whip down around his chest, Chocolate, continued, "We were shocked to learn about the events that lead to his hospitalization. And we saw he's to be transferred to new living arrangements. That would be you fulfilling your end of the deal right?" Chocolate pulled on the whip lightly and the leather weapon fell into place around Gendo's neck as if it were meant to be there.

With death behind him and sitting on his armrest, Gendo did what he did best. He caved in and lied. "I assure you ladies the kidnapping will never happen again, I've taken steps to insure the Third Child be properly trained and heightened security for all of the pilots." Gendo knew that neither Rei nor Asuka actually needed protecting from anything that held its origin on earth, but lately more things beyond earth had been arriving.

Both Tira and Chocolate nodded and walked away from Gendo and stood before his desk. Tira spoke softly as she re-adorned her cape and glasses. "For you sake it better not and we expect our Shinji to be ready to move into our estate as soon as he's released from the hospital. Or…" Tira trailed off while Chocolate cracked her whip very loud and at Gendo's face. The man's glasses shattered into pieces yet he was left unharmed. "You understand. Thank you."

Passing the two women as she entered, Ritsuko was treated to a sight she hadn't seen since Asuka trashed Gendo's office, that being a haggard Gendo Ikari. Knowing that if Gendo knew she found the situation very humorous she'd be in for a punishment of her own, Ritsuko bite her lip to keep from smiling. "Sir, you requested my presence?"

Trying to act off the large swells of sweat under his armpits and the pale complexion he was wearing, Gendo straightened his tie as he couldn't push his glasses up like normal because they were in many tiny pieces. "Yes Doctor. I'm placing you in charge of improving the Third Child's combat abilities. You're to inform Shion that Kos-Mos has failed in her duties as a guardian, and inform Attim that she will now be fully responsible for his well being." Gendo knew full well that the android would be devastated, and so would its creator, hence he said it.

"What should it tell Captain Katsuragi about his living condition?" Ritsuko asked hoping that Gendo wouldn't crush her friend's life as well. Ritsuko could tell that Misato had more than a passing fancy for the young boy, and after spending time with him she wasn't so disproving. 'Boy's a lot better than his father, that's for sure. And the money from her Website is ungodly.'

Looking at the closed door and praying that the Misu sisters weren't still there, Gendo relaxed. "He's to be prepped for moving as soon as he's allowed to leave the hospital. The Second Child has stressed an interest in living with her, so you can allow that." Gendo's mind lapse from fear had made him forget why Asuka wanted to live with Misato, but in time Asuka would remind him. "You have your orders, now get started on them, and I expect you to visit tonight."

'Fat chance you perverted bastard,' Ritsuko thought as she nodded, saluted, and left the office. Save for the knowledge she had that would crush Shion, Misato, and Kos-Mos, Ritsuko was very happy. She had been working heavily on the cat-adaptation serum ever since it failed with Rei. "This time it'll work perfectly!" Ritsuko cried, and scared one techy so much he fell off the walkway into the Bakelite Sea around Unit-01.

Gendo's happy, Ritsuko's happy…nobody else will be though-

"Yes Ritsuko I understand…you'll need how long?…I don't know if I can keep her that long…no I will not shut her down…no I can't shoot her…no I don't think Attim wants a punching bag…goodbye Ritsuko," Misato said in an exasperated tone, and a tone that relayed the fact that Ritsuko hadn't told Misato about the moving of her ward. All Ritsuko said was she needed a few minutes to administer a test on Shinji.

Turning away from the monitor that showed Ritsuko walking into Shinji's hospital room, Attim gave Misato her full attention. After the rescue mission, the two women tried and successfully made amends for the shaky first meeting. Sure they were rivals, but Misato was how Attim could find some sort of attachment with Shinji, she could visualize herself in Misato's place. "What did the fake blond wonder weasel want?"

Misato looked at Kos-Mos who was receiving the final check-ups from Shion. "Ritsuko wants us to insure a few minutes of freedom so she can administer a test on Shinji, and doesn't want Kos-Mos showing up and vaporizing her head." Kos-Mos had made it very evident that the moment she was cleared for active duty after her battle-induced wounds were fixed she was going to be with Shinji. What confused Misato was what Kos-Mos said about repaying Shinji for the blessing he bestowed upon her. "How are you feeling by the way?" Misato asked.

Flexing her fingers in rapid succession, Attim smiled. "Good as new, I've reworked Section-2 for maximum protection. And I was able to watch him sleep for awhile." Attim admitted with a faint blush. Misato was the only woman, aside of Ritsuko and Washu, if the small woman actually met Attim, that knew of Attim's short life span, and her wishes to protect Shinji without being seen.

"Glad to hear it, it's a shame you can't take credit for the save," Misato lied about the last part. The cover story had her in the spot light saving Shinji, and she would milk it for as much as possible. Watching Kos-Mos push Shion down into a chair and start walking towards them, "Its show time, turn off the monitor so she can't see what's happening," Misato ordered Attim, who complied knowingly. "Kos-Mos, back on your feet already? That's technology for you."

"Spare me the diversionary tactics I am going to see my master now." Kos-Mos said simply and tried to walk past the two women. Finding Attim blocking the doorway, Kos-Mos glared at the women. "The only thing sparing your life is the fact you saved my Master while I broke that woman. Now stand down as I will not spare you again."

Walking up to Kos-Mos and putting her hands on the android's shoulder, Attim bored into Kos-Mos's eyes harshly. "Now listen to my very carefully Miss Microchip 2015. I've been put in charge of Shinji's safety, and in your current state I'm afraid you'll put undo stress on him. He's too weak for your…how should I put this delicately. Your five tons of love to be smothering him."

"I have to agree with Attim, Kos-Mos. Shinji's still very weak from being attacked by that Succubus as Asuka put it. You could do more damage if you're not careful." What Asuka had actually said was that Shinji was the only human to ever survive and resist Morrigan, and was more proof than ever that he was meant to be her vassal. "So before you go and see him, we need to lay some ground rules."

Turning her arm into her R-Scythe, Kos-Mos looked very un-angelic. "TO HELL with your rules. I'm going now, and I won't be stopped." Attim for a brief moment could have sworn Kos-Mos's eyes were blue. Stepping aside and letting Kos-Mos leave, Attim wasn't about to die after they had already succeeded in staling the android long enough.

"That could have gone better," Shion admitted from her station at the door. The limiters she installed in Kos-Mos were failing, so she put in a few new improvements to keep her destined husband alive and safe from Kos-Mos. "You two really need to stand up to her better."

Attim and Misato answered by flipping Shion off and heading to the cafeteria for a coffee, and wait for their turn to visit Shinji.

Don't get in Kos-Mos's way if you wish to live-

Something didn't seem right when he woke after Ritsuko's injection. 'She said it was a variation of what she injected Rei with that turned her into a cat girl, but she fixed that part.' But Shinji just couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong. His eyes still blurry with sleep couldn't focus on anything. All he knew was he was laying in the sun streaming in from the window and it felt wonderful. 'Maybe I'll sleep a little more.'

The sound of his door opening caught his attention and his droopy eyes spied Kos-Mos walking into his room confused. "Shinji-sama are you here? Shinji-sama?" Kos-Mos asked as she stepped deeper into the room and started looking around.

Trying to say "I'm here Kos-Mos, how are you," Shinji failed as his new vocal cords could only manage, "Meow!" As Shinji tried to stand up he found he had four legs, and no arms. 'What the hell! Did I just meow?'

Her eyes darting to the offending noise, Kos-Mos saw the meowing creature. Now Kos-Mos didn't like anything feline. That came from the overly sensitive reaction she had to the creatures. Shion had been daydreaming about the end result of her creation while programming Kos-Mos's reaction to certain stimuli and resulted in an allergic reaction to feline dander in the android. "What is such a foul creature doing in my Master's bed!"

Shinji's new appendage, that being his tail, curled up around his hind leg as he cowed under the fury he saw in Kos-Mos's now blood shot eyes. 'What am I? What did Ritsuko-san do to me?' Seeing Kos-Mos's arm flying down at him, Shinji jumped off the bed and started running down the hospital hallway. The orderlies and Kyoshi only saw the android chasing a white striped tiger cub down the hallway.

Succeeding in her mission of herding the vile creature out of the hospital and into the bustling streets of Tokyo-3, Kos-Mos was very pleased with herself and headed back to Shion's lab to get her medicine. Upon arrive the android found a very upset Misato, the good doctor Akagi with a gun to her head, and an equally pissed off Attim. It was Shion that spoke, "Kos-Mos it's terrible, Akagi here turned Shinji into a tiger cub with her dumb serum and now we can't find him!" Kos-Mos did something nobody thought was possible, she fainted.

Yup that boy can't get a break-

Once on the street and basking in his new cat-ness, Shinji was terrified; he had been chased out of the hospital by somebody he cared about, had not eaten in a long time, and was tired. 'On top of everything, I think I have a flea.' The pads of his feet were still sensitive due to the newness of them. Yes the day had gone from good to bad to hellish in a few short moments. Just when he thought it couldn't get any worse…the rainstorm broke and started to drench the city.

Wondering in the rain for hours, Shinji could only think, 'This sucks. Why can't things go well for me for even a moment…what am I supposed to do now?' Shinji thought as he dodged the larger humans as they ran for cover and didn't stop to look down at their feet for any stray white tiger cubs they might step on. Doing his best to yell out his frustrations from under the bus stop bench he stopped to hide under, all that came out was a strangled, "Meow!"

"What was that?" came a demure reply from the other side of the bench. Looking under her seat, Hotaru Tomoe found what would later be one of her life's greatest blessings. Holding her hand out to the scared, wet, and shaking animal Hotaru called soothingly. "Come out of there Tiger cub-san. I won't hurt you."

Lulled by the soothing voice, and the need for some relief, Shinji obliged the voice and was swiftly picked up by the girl and dropped on her lap. Before he could protest the action, Hotaru started scratching him behind his ears and all wanting for freedom stopped. His eyes closed and his engine started and he purred loudly. Thought had been obliterated.

Giggling softly, Hotaru continued to pet the obvious tiger cub. "You're so cute Tiger Cub-san, I can't leave you in the rain like this. You'll have to come home with me until we can find your owners." Sure the reason Hotaru was out in the rain was she had a fight with her guardians Haruka and Michiru, but it wasn't over something important, just her father's new lover, Mamoru Chiba. Wrapping Shinji in her overcoat, Hotaru picked the still purring Shinji into her arms and headed home.

Lost in the pleasure of Hotaru's ear petting, Shinji couldn't care less where he was going, his cat instincts had taken over and allowed himself to be pampered. His eyes closed, Shinji nuzzled his head against Hotaru's palm when she slowed in her movements. Yes life was indeed not that bad at the moment. But for Ritsuko, life was just turning down one of the darker roads…Misato wasn't somebody to piss off.

And that ends the chapter-

Yes Shinji didn't even get a day to recover in wakefulness before more mishaps occur. Shinji's now turned into a white tiger cub as per Ritsuko's botched serum, but lets not be to upset at the doctor…she's under a lot of stress at the moment.

This next arc has at least two more chapters to it, so I hope you're ready for a small dose of Tiger Cub Shinji action! Sailor Saturn could make a good care giver to the animal…we can hope.

Well on non-fic related note I've just been informed that I start my new job April 18! So all's going better on my end too. Hope the new position allows for me to keep writing like I wish and I hope you all enjoyed this chapter.

Ja Mata

Zentrodie (zentrodie at secondimpact dot com)

Updated Battle lines!

Those siding with Kos-Mos: Xeo, Konos the Grey, ScienceMonkey, Nicknack, DarkChuchuo, Sybian Machine, Final Max, Crrot, Sol bandus, Pandomine, Vaurnut, NickNack, Soulless, Sleepy Kitty, Deus, renzokuken-sama, James Ray Edwards, KevinEc, Alpha Draconis1, a fan3, Science Monkey, Darklion74, Serpent Spy, Soulless, Jin Kazemeijin, Kyubi, CheeseKing, Typhon, "The Man in the Pallid Mask," Cyber Angel One, Sideris, Anomaly27, Slayer6, SickToTheGore, Tempest Destiny, Le Bete Noir, Urtv 17, Ordinary Joe, Sideris, Absu7, B52, SilentAssasinMecha, Hokage-Sama, Drakandrin, Tonberry, URTV-666, U-DO, Wings of Lead, l33t0n3, Obsessed Uber Rei Total: 50

Those wanting a Harem: deinku, VCR, Jon Cook (w/o Asuka), mc2rpg, Positron(for now), Hank, Finalfantasyxii, chan,ken, kins of Ireland, Mordamir, Kman, Valtiel, Epsilon, ShadowCascade, EchoGarrote, Vic, Frank the Bunny (Don't chain me up!), NateGold, Gord, Slake-Sama, Zemzaba, TheWickerMan, Dark Anomaly, Bobby, (Unknown mass), Masumune, Variable Creatue, Tyson, Drake Smith, Rusty Knight, Bonta-Kun ,Production, Messiah3, WingOmega, DarkStarlkerFan (and wait), Crono10, Aladeth, Vic, Idiot564, ChronoTravel, Blood of Odin, Kman,Razial the Damned, Warden, Zang-Sama, Jizzle the uncontrollable Jazzle, NefCanuck, ChronoTravel, Andrew Joshua, JWM Talon Total: 48

Those siding with Rei: Otaku-Dman, Vibious, SoulFire, Macavity the Mystery Cat, Dark Machine, Philg, NickNack, Azurewind, Redmage2k, Rei-aka-Ayanami-chan, jennyjennie, rgreat, Katfum, Oni-Otaku, wiseman, Crimson Arrow, Player0, GoldmonX, Mak, Pert-kun, The Mad Shoe, Mattman65, Herder of cats, DeathScyth, Seraphy, TheCrawlingChaos, Lord Amon Total: 27

Those siding with Asuka: Kusinagi, Nova10, Vibious, Final Max, Kuracao, Redshadow64, xXx, Supereva0102, Asuka-fan, SOMEBODY, Supereva01, Knighsshadow, WarpWizard, Dude, Dragon's death, Uniden, A/S Fan X 2, Edhunne, Old Foo, Deathaanimefan32l, Sledge, Soul Eva Total: 23

Those siding with Blue haired girlsOrganized Kaos, Trikster , Kima Prideflame, Nick McC, Shinzaku, M.E.S.S, Total: 7

Those siding with Sasami: Doggystyle, razzor15, Vaurnut, Golden Kitsune, Omrianh Total: 5

Those siding with Mana: Steve Vader, Chewy, Player 0 Total: 3

Those siding with Yui Ikari: Education, Imaginary404 total: 2

Those siding with Shion Uzuki: Remenants, Final Max Total : 2

Those siding with Misato: Kippenberger, JVR Total: 2

Those siding with Hikari: Amathyst Wind Total: 1

Those siding with Aisha Clan Clan: Bloody Angel X Total: 1

And Kos-Mos takes the lead again! The android proves that putting a beat down on a potential usurper can steal votes! The harem vote has dropped a bit in speed (and I really need to go over the list and fix things as its gotten out of control) But that can only be a slow thing.

Will the addition of the outer senshi prove to be Kos-Mos's undoing as she forced our hero in his new form into the hands of the lovely Hotaru Tomoe? Will Asuka let Kos-Mos live after herding her vassal away?

Only time and your votes will decide! WE see the older women losing power to the younger as Misato, Shion, and Aisha lose supporters and the younger women steal them! Will you let that happen? Do you want that to happen? We shall see. Join us next time same fic time…same fic channel….same deranged author.


	15. Who loves kitty

Standard Disclaimer

Yes I know its been a little while since the last chapter of anything I write. My Nadesico story two weeks ago being the last update I had, but I'm still getting the hang of my new job and the new apartment so bear with me. I'm almost fully adapted to working and still having energy afterward so expect quicker updates soon.

Well enough of my life, you want the story…right?

X-

What We Make Of It

Chapter 15 – Coping with change

or-

One very odd pet

As sleep wore away from his body and his mind started to start up for its daily grind, Shinji could have sworn he had just had the oddest dream in his life. 'Must be all the hospital food,' he thought as he basked in the glorious feeling of sunlight on his body. So overjoyed by the feel he just lay with his eyes closed and smiled. 'I really don't know why this feels so good, but it really does.'

Stretching his arms and legs to there max, Shinji was brought to the attention of several things. One he was very warm, a thought he attributed to either Misato sleeping by him again, she was a very warm person and clingy or Asuka was nearby, being in the same room with her made the temperature warmer. Two he could feel something against his face and it was big, again he thought maybe Misato had snuck into his bed. 'She has bad dreams,' or so she told him as an excuse. The third thing he realized was…he was very itchy. That he didn't have an answer for.

Opening his eyes to the believed sight of his drunken guardian's sleeping face, Shinji wasn't so fortunate. Let nobody ever say he was a lucky person, but luck like beauty is in the eye of the beholder. 'WHO THE HELL IS THIS GIRL?' Shinji's mind reeled as he took in Hotaru Tomoe's sleeping face, one to which his own face was pressed. Pulling away slowly and with much confusion, Shinji's whiskers bristled against the demure young lady's nose and in moments she was giggling in her sleep.

That was when Shinji realized he hadn't dreamt of being turned into a tiger cub, Kos-Mos had chased him, and a young girl had saved him from a very nasty rainstorm. "WHAT DO I DO I NEED TO GET BACK TO NERV" Shinji cried aloud, which came out as a very weak and tiny meow he wasn't a very big tiger cub. No he was the size of a normal house cat with medium length fur, which had been the cause of his itchiness. Running in circles on Hotaru's bed, Shinji was panicking, but to anybody that saw him he appeared to be chasing his tail.

'I have to get out of here and back to Nerv…but what if Kos-Mos still doesn't know its me?' Shinji's mind came to a sudden halt, as well did his body. The look of hate and disgust on Kos-Mos's face was very evident, and for once Shinji did grasp the concept. 'She must have allergies.' Never did he stop to think that an android shouldn't have them, but Shion wasn't really that interested in Kos-Mos's construction as much as she was interested in the outcome. As his mind tried desperately to grasp at his new cat-ness, and the how to fix it, the raising sun caught up to him as he stood at the crook of Hotaru's legs.

Now normally Shinji would have never even dared think about such a region of the female body, and he wasn't thinking right now anyway. His inherent cat instincts took over and he curled up in a small ball as the sun poured over him and he opted to sleep off his problems and cause irritation for whatever human he was near. As Hotaru woke, watched the cute tiger cub play on her bed, then fall asleep in her lap, the lonely child instantly grew powerfully attached to it. Rubbing the sleep out of her eye with her hand, Hotaru looked lovingly at the shallow raising and falling of the sleeping animals chest. "Did you sleep well Tiger Cub-san?" Hotaru asked softly as to not wake the animal.

She knew she couldn't keep it, she should be looking for the owners, and her guardians would likely toss it out the door, but Hotaru's now fully risen body couldn't stay her hand from rubbing the mound of fur between her legs ears. The sleeping body of Shinji responded in kind as he purred. "He's so cute!" Taking a fearful look at the door, Hotaru was dreading the moment either Haruka or Michiru came to wake her. 'They'll be upset I snuck you in here Tiger Cub-san"

Just as her mind began ways to counteract any potential arguments her guardians might have had, her mind registered the low creak of her door swinging open. If memory served her well, Hotaru guessed it would be Michiru coming in. 'She's the lady like one of the two,' Hotaru quickly came to realize as she started living with the two. Hotaru had no qualms with the sexual preference of the two women, but at times they were a little too different with their views. Tossing the blanket off her chest and covering her legs, and the sleeping lump that was Shinji, Hotaru prepared herself to meet her waker.

Peeking her head through the small crack in the door, Michiru was a little surprised to see the young woman sitting up in bed looking out the window. Michiru also missed the nervous fidget that crossed Hotaru's slightly pallid complexion. "You're already awake, I'm glad to see that. Feeling any better?" Michiru's voice was full of compassion and motherly concern. Hotaru's walk in the rain following their heated debate about her father the previous day had her and Haruka worried the young woman would fall ill.

Thankful that the morning sun was masking her nervousness, Hotaru nodded as she turned to face Michiru. "It was only a slight headache and sense of lightheadedness, you don't have to worry about me. I'm not glass Michiru-san," Hotaru said with a little more curtness than she wanted. With her weaker constitution they had reason to be worried, but it didn't make her feel any better about being coddled. Noticing Michiru drawing back slightly, a hurt expression on her face, Hotaru quickly followed up more politely. "I really am better now thanks for worrying."

Taking a seat on the side of Hotaru's western style bed, Haruka insisted they have at least one in the house, just in case they wanted to try something different, Michiru smiled at the girl before her. While Hotaru thought the two women worried about her health, the truth was they two Outer Senshi were terrified of her. 'So here sits the most powerful Senshi of us all. With the power to destroy planets, be reborn, and do it again.' Sailor Saturn really wasn't somebody to be on the bad side of…the ability to die, come back, blow you up, and come back to gloat was a very large advantage.

Snaking her fingers around Hotaru's hand, Michiru was both relieved and upset at not having to wake the girl. It prevented her from backing down from the other reason she had been sent to talk to her. 'Haruka's just to brash…she needs to be more delicate at times.' As Hotaru tilted her head in confusion…and as a certain tiger cub's head moved to a location best not described, Michiru cleared her throat. "Hotaru, about yesterday. We know your getting older and maturing. Haruka and I think its time we give you…the talk."

"The talk?" Hotaru asked in a steadily weakening voice. Her free hand sliding under the blanket to hopefully push something a bit further down the bed, sadly she failed. "What type of talk do you mean?" Being a child of the current era, Hotaru was sure Michiru didn't mean the sex talk. She had watched a few episodes of television and that's all it takes to learn the basics.

Not being of the current generation, and being totally blinded by parental wisdom, or lack there of, Michiru did mean the sex talk. The issue was touchy for her, so a nice rosy blush spread across her face as she sought strength in Hotaru's hand. "Haruka and I'll go into it later, after you get back from school. Ok?" Her warrior's spirit was laughing its ass off at how cowardly Michiru was being, well laughing and sharpening its guilt blade to stab her with later. "You just get ready for school and be sure to be home by seven tonight, ok?"

A blush of her own blossomed on Hotaru's face for a reason Michiru misinterpreted as anticipation, where it was very far from it. Hotaru wanted Michiru out of the room, not now, not a few moments ago, no Hotaru wanted Michiru gone the moment Shinji started batting at invisible angels. "I will Michiru-san, now if you'll ex…ex…excuse me!" Hotaru shouted, as a paw was being very naughty. Seeing the now look of surprise on Michiru's face, Hotaru eeped and replied, "I don't want to be late for school."

Kissing Hotaru's forehead, Michiru said she would go and finish breakfast and wished Hotaru a good day. The moment the door shut, Hotaru drew the blankets back, and was thankful that she hadn't tried hiding the animal under the blankets the thin material had served a vital purpose. Seeing the now fully woken blue-eyed tiger cub looking at her groggily, Hotaru tried to look upset, but lost her will as the cuteness factor was broken and took the animal in her arms. "Tiger Cub-san, you were very naughty."

Shinji was just perplexed. He was sleeping and having a dream of painting a wall, his normal none-nightmare, when Hotaru grabbed him and hugged him fiercely. Totally at Hotaru's mercy until her learned at the very least where in Tokyo-3, he hoped he was still in the city, he was and how he could contact anybody he knew that wouldn't threaten to kill him. Hotaru answered his worries nicely. "I'm going to take you to school with me today. If I leave you Haruka or Michiru-san will see you," and adding in a sadder tone, "and ask about your real owner."

Nodding to Hotaru's logic, Shinji was rewarded with a scratch to the chin and a laughing Hotaru. Who was laughing because it was so comical so see a cat nod, it was almost as if he understood her. Jumping out of bed and shedding her nightgown and playfully throwing it on top of 'Tiger Cub-san' so he wouldn't watch. Hotaru got ready for school, then shoved Shinji into a largest backpack. Shinji just felt like crying as he had violated the charming young ladies privacy.

Yup Shinji can't fight his cat nature-

Having her age drastically change at whim, the whole dying and being reborn thing, Hotaru was only slightly miffed to have the aging process stop one year short of being in the same class as the inner Senshi. She could have had some friends then, somebody that at least understood her. Chibi-Usa was good at that, but the young pink haired princess was often not in the current century. Clutching her bag closer to her chest and taking a peek inside to see the cute face of the confused Shinji looking back at her, Hotaru had finally found somebody she could call a friend. It wouldn't call her creepy, fear her, or ridicule her, namely because normal cats can't talk.

Stealing into the classroom as their teacher moved slowly to the front of the room, Hotaru just hoped that she wouldn't find the owner and be able to keep the animal. Taking one last look in the bag and whispering into it softly, "Now you have to be well behaved Tiger Cub-san and don't make any noise." Hotaru sealed the bag and walked to her desk, under the heavy gaze of many of her fellow students. Hushed voices could be heard saying unflattering things such as 'freak', 'weirdo', and 'Min-May' were easily heard by Shinji's heightened hearing, and by hearing such made him sad for the girl.

"Oh-kay students, did everybody do their homework like asked?" Ayumi 'Osaka' Kasuga drooled out as the students looked at her puzzled. Osaka had instructed her students to prepare for class today by splitting twenty pairs of chopsticks evenly using the method she had taught them. As nobody took her seriously in her assignment, nobody had said chopsticks ready to turn in. After a few moments of following dust particles as the fluttered around the room, Osaka aptly forgot about her request.

Stifling a laugh that had poised itself on her lips, Hotaru loved Osaka as her teacher. The young Senshi knew that the woman wasn't dumb at all, just thought on a totally different level than others. Osaka had chosen the path of a teacher based on Chiyo's suggestion so many years ago had no idea that Chiyo herself was teaching in the room next to hers, and if left to her own devices would never know. While the other students let out sighs of exasperation, disgust, and some in relief Osaka finally stopped watching the dust and readdressed the class. "First we will do math. Will all the American's pull out their division books, Hawaiians multiplication, and the Japanese the logarithm and differential astral physics books."

How Osaka grouped the class was the topic of heated debate, and much drooling on the count of the male populous. Osaka grouped the girls as she herself had been grouped, according to bust size. Hotaru being in the Japanese group looked at the brick of pages that made up the book her math questions where to come from. 'Maybe Osaka-san is crazy…how can anybody be expected to know this at our age?' But if luck were on her side, she wouldn't be called to do a question.

It wasn't as it's a convenient plot device…I mean Shinji's luck transferred to her and after two boys, an American, and three Hawaiian group members did their simple questions, Osaka's eyes focused onto Hotaru like a laser. "Hotaru-chan, question three from page five hundred and seven please." And yes Osaka had fully expected the questions to be answered.

Having the sudden urge, and swell of power, Hotaru wondered what it would take to get out of this mess, and consequently a small two bedroom apartment in the United States exploded for no apparent reason. Stumbling out of her desk as a small bit of eraser bounced off her head, tossed by one of the girls that were jealous of Hotaru's far more attractive form, Hotaru knocked her bag over, and Shinji was finally given a good look of the classroom, one he recognized. 'I'm in my school! I can find Sasami-san, or Rei-san, or…or…I know the answer to that question,' Shinji realized as he watched Hotaru write equations on the board.

'I can hardly read this let alone solve it!' Hotaru's heart lurched tightly in her chest as fear and embarrassment assaulted her. Her whole life was like this. Questions to big and to advanced for her being thrown at her with no hope of understanding or salvation. She had nobody to turn to for help, and nobody caring that she was to young to be burdened with it. Just as tears threatened to break free from her eyes as the frustration built to a thunderous octave, her blessing was made clear to her. Feeling a soft cottony material brush against her leg, Hotaru looked down and hissed out of her teeth, "Tiger Cub-san!'

Seeing his savior and temporary gave giver in trouble, Shinji snuck out of his bag and rushed to the front of the classroom, where with a pencil in his mouth began writing the solution on the wall. About this time a few of the students began to notice such a freakish event and lapsed into a coma, others found it so overwhelmingly cute that they rushed up to the front of the room, to see the animal they assumed Hotaru had trained and taught. "Hotaru-chan," an eager little suck up asked politely, "how ever did you teach this cat to do this?"

Finishing up the problem for her, and then being passed around by the class, Shinji was glad to have been of some help to Hotaru, who was now being seen in a different light. Surely anybody with such a cute and well-trained pet, couldn't be that bad. As the classroom degraded into utter and total panic and mayhem, Shinji being the center of it, Hotaru couldn't believe how quickly things had begun to change. Turning to the second suck up, "Sure I'll go to lunch with you, thank you." Smiling at the girls, Hotaru reclaimed her pet, one now that only super-powered non-human beings could ever hope to reclaim. Sadly for Hotaru many of those seeking Shinji now were just that.

"Pikaya!" Osaka declared, wrong as always to the general masses, but correct in her own way. Settling the class down with a lecture on the nature and development of the bread eating competition to the classroom, Hotaru was delving into the mass of new emails on her computer. So many people had been suddenly made a where that the girl existed, and was far from creepy.

So now I'm homeless, thank you Sailor Saturn-

Her arms held out triumphantly, Shinji dangling in them, Hotaru spun wild circles as she walked out of her classroom. She was as light as air and as happy as an anime fan when they learn of a new season of their favorite show. The lunch had turned into something that wasn't just mock friendship on her classmates' part. They had actually enjoyed the young Tomoe's presence and soon the object that had initially captured their fancy, the tiger cub that sat diligently on Hotaru's lap, why it tried to jump away nobody knew, had soon lost their interest as Hotaru captured it.

"Tiger Cub-san thank you so much! If you hadn't tried to help me today I'd never have met my new friends!" Drawing Shinji close to her face, Hotaru planted a soft kiss on his nose. Shinji at that time nearly had a heart attack and felt horrid about abusing his position to steal an 'innocent maiden's' kiss. Dancing down the hallway Hotaru's back suddenly opted to be mean and threw an unknown person to the ground. Turning to see who had the audacity to no look out for her, Hotaru placed Shinji on the ground and looked at the young woman on the ground by her.

Shinji's poor heart took another hit as he saw who Hotaru had knocked over. 'It's Sasami-san! I can finally get back to Nerv and back to normal!' But something didn't look right about Sasami to him, she wasn't as happy and cheerful as she often was. 'Is something wrong with her?' he immediately grew concerned.

Accepting the younger class woman's hand, Sasami's life was defiantly not going well. "Sorry about that, I'm not really myself today," Sasami said in a low-key manner, almost as if the life had been sucked out of her body. 'Shinji-san has been gone for over a day now and we don't know why as nobody will tell me anything! Nerv business my fanny!' Not being able to see, try cooking breakfast for, and talking to her fiancé was very hard for her.

Bowing politely to the girl that sent massive pangs of jealousy down her spine, Hotaru insisted it was her fault, it was after all totally fault anyway. "I'm sorry, I should be more careful when walking. Is something the matter?" Hotaru asked as her genuine feelings of concern for others fell over her mask of indifference. Watching Sasami dust herself off, Hotaru could tell what was bothering Sasami. 'Usagi-san looked that way after Father told her about his relationship with Chiba-san.'

Sasami waved off the allegations with her hand and tried to appear normal again, she failed miserably but Hotaru didn't bring attention to the poor acting. Wanting to be alone and not standing in the hall talking to unknown girls, Sasami made to leave when she stumbled over a mass at her legs. Looking at the obstruction Sasami was momentarily better, "Such a cute cat you have! He must like me as I almost stepped on him."

Scooping up the meowing Shinji who was crying at Sasami 'It's me! It's me!' Hotaru scratched under his chin and Shinji's mind shut down, making any hope of escape useless. Purring loudly in his arms, Shinji felt another pair if fingers on his body, this time behind his ears as Sasami scratched in. 'Heaven…this surely is heaven…' his cat instincts told him as his sense of self-loathing was building a very sturdy case of why he should throw himself in traffic.

"Isn't he the cutest thing you've seen?" Hotaru asked not knowing that Sasami had seen cuter and owned it. Ryo-oki would have been offended at the idea that she wasn't the cutest species in the universe. Being the polite girl she was however, Sasami agreed, as it wouldn't do to let humans know of the existence of extra planer species.

Sasami did have one question that prompted Hotaru to lose some of her good mood. "Such a rare breed, how do you tend to it? Does it have special needs that other cats don't?" Drawing her hand away from Shinji's head, Sasami wondered if it were even legal to have a wild animal as a pet.

A thoughtful look encroached Hotaru's face as she pondered what she knew about tigers. The sum was not very much. "I don't know…I just got him," and he was hers now mind you, "Do you know anybody I could ask about rare species of cats?" In Tokyo-3 such a rare doctor or veterinarian would be hard to find. 'I hope I'm not hurting Tiger Cub-san in anyway.'

"I know somebody you could talk to," a chipper voice called from behind the two conversing teenagers. One teenager had the power to obliterate a planet, the other with the power of a Goddess blossoming in her body. Chiyo didn't know any of this, all she knew was that Sasami was her student, and seemed to have lost the will to live in one short day. "I could take you there if you want, I need to see her anyway."

Being like every student not in Chiyo's classroom, Hotaru made the painful mistake of believing the young woman was just another student. "Ah thanks. Are you doing a project on cats or something that you need to meet with this lady?" Hotaru didn't notice Sasami waving her flattened palm across her neck or trying to shush her. After the words escaped Hotaru's lips, Sasami quickly said goodbye and ran away fast.

What followed was a bevy of lectures on not judging people based on age, height, breast size, Chiyo never did make it to Sakaki's group as speculated, or anything else other than merit. Hotaru nodded at the appropriate time, Shinji busied himself by chasing a fly that had wondered to close to the ground, then started playing the game of 'I'm to high for you' with Shinji, while Chiyo talked until she was blue in the face. "Now then, if we understand each other," Chiyo gave Hotaru a look which Hotaru answered with many 'yes's and head nods, "We can go to Sakaki's clinic.

As you can tell, heavy Azumanga Daioh in this chapter-

After stepping into the veterinary clinic, Hotaru had serious doubts about continuing any further. The inside waiting room looked more like a reception room at a child's hospital. Cute cat and puppy wallpaper, stuffed animals everywhere, and just overly cute feeling. Not wanting to sound mistrusting, and hear another lecture, Hotaru tried to be coy. "So…how does this Sakaki woman know about rare species of cats?" Setting the rare cat in question on the ground, Shinji who had just realized he wasn't in the school anymore and Sasami was long gone, sulked by the door.

Sneaking a peek at Hotaru's pet, Chiyo couldn't resist, "Looks like somebody is afraid of the doctor." Both women laughed, as it did appear that Shinji was very afraid of being in the office, as he should be. "Oh about Sakaki-san, she has her own very rare breed of cat. And I've known her for so long that I know she's really good with animals." Memories of bringing Takamichi-san to Sakaki when she first opened came flooding into Chiyo's mind. How she loved that big old dog of hers, it was so tragic that it died so young. 'I know Sakaki-san did her best though, I know she did.'

As the two women walked to the secretary's desk to see if Sakaki was both in and available, the seated woman looked up and smiled. "Mihama-chan what a unexpected visit! Sakaki-sempai will be thrilled to see you." Kaorin who had thrown away a highly paid legislative job just to answer phones and take notes for the woman she loved who didn't realize it, hated Chiyo with a passion only Asuka could find enjoyable. Kaorin's love for Sakaki was met with nothing while Sakaki adored the damned 'cute and cuddly' Chiyo. 'I hate her and she doesn't even know it or why!'

"Hello Kaorin-san, is Sakaki-san in? I have a student here with a few cat related questions." Chiyo addressed the sulking woman openly and friendly. Chiyo had no idea that Sakaki's requests to go out, get meals together, and the occasional 'why don't you stay the night' were all come-ons.

Before Kaorin could say 'no she's moved to America' Sakaki opened the door and lightly embraced Chiyo in a hug. "Chiyo-chan, it's been so long since we got together, how are you? What brings you here?" Sakaki's long black hair seemed to wrap around Chiyo's smaller frame, as would the leaves of a Venus flytrap. How Sakaki could think it was a long time, they had ate dinner together three days ago, Chiyo couldn't grasp.

Blushing softly at the overly amorous hug the teacher and vet were sharing, Hotaru stepped forward with Shinji now in her arms. "Sensei, I just received this cat as a pet, and I wanted to know if I should be taking any special steps to insure his health." Bouncing the cub in her arms, Hotaru had to lower him to her chest as Shinji started to bat at her bangs as they swayed and although she thought it was cute and all, she couldn't concentrate well.

Minutely irked that the reason Chiyo came to visit wasn't to pledge her undying love for her, Sakaki took a look at the cat the other girl had. Sakaki's mind stopped. 'C…cu….cute,' was all her mind repeated as she envisioned Maya, her own wildcat, and Shinji playing with balls of string, each other, and lounging in Chiyo's lap. The last one equated to a drop of blood dripping down her stoic nose and hitting the ground. "May I see him please?" Sakaki said with a shaky voice and trembling fingers grasped Shinji in her hands. "Oh no…this doesn't seem good."

Lancelets of fear tugged at Hotaru's heart, her legs going weak as her arms went lax. "Trouble, what do you mean?" Chiyo could see the concern on Hotaru's face and was again reminded of when Sakaki had told her the same thing about Takamichi-san. Sakaki went into a long detailed explanation of what she thought about how sick she thought the cub was and insisted she be allowed to take it into her office and do a few checks. "Please do! I don't know what I'd do if something happened to him!" It was at that moment Shinji started to realize how lonely Hotaru was, and felt even worse about the situation.

With a new cute cat in her arms, Sakaki rushed into her office and locked the door. "Maya come out and meet your new playmate," Sakaki cooed to her ever-present pet wildcat Maya. Being small for the breed of cat he was, Maya wasn't as one would expect a wild animal to be. Over the years of pampering, smothering, and overly affectionate care Sakaki had given him, Maya was well…Maya was a big sissy.

Timidly the brown with darker brown strips haired cat walked from around Sakaki's desk and beheld Shinji. Meowing in approval Maya tackled Shinji playfully and chased his tail as Shinji tried frantically to understand what had just happened. Sakaki just watched with a blissful look of sheer joy on her face. "Would you two like some treats? I have treats for my lovelies!" Sakaki said proudly as she put some catnip and treats on the ground. Maya rushed to the pile while Shinji, who had only eating a few bites of food that the girls feed him at the lunch table came more timidly.

Now it is very obvious that Shinji had never done drugs before, never even considered it in his life as something he wanted to do. But Shinji didn't know what catnip was, so when the smell overpowered his senses and he started to inhale the plant, it is also safe to assume that he didn't know what to expect. That is how he started to play with Maya's tail as Sakaki through force of will alone tore herself away from the scene to go and ruin Hotaru's life.

Seated in Sakaki's reception room, Hotaru could feel the pins and needles of unease tingling around her arms and legs. What if she had hurt that poor creature, what if it died because of what she did to it, and how could she live with herself if she had caused it. When Sakaki walked back into the room, sadness etched across her features, Hotaru's heart shattered in her chest. "Is…is something wrong?"

The sadness in Sakaki's face came from not being able to watch the cats play, but it worked very well as a cover. "I'm sorry but there was nothing I could do. I'm afraid that it had a rare disease and…I'm terribly sorry." Hotaru's eyes glistened with tears as they cascaded down her cheeks, Chiyo hugged the poor girl as the grief was so powerful that she could not do anything but.

Around that moment Maya dashed into the room with the last of the treats in his mouth followed by Shinji who dived on top of the escaping brown feline and the two tumbled across the floor playfully. Sakaki's face still a mirror of sincerity wanted to die about that time. Hotaru, in mid-cry, saw her darling Tiger Cub-san playing happily, looked at Sakaki, back at Shinji, now fully under the influence of the nip and was cleaning Maya's side with his tongue, Sakaki again, then to Chiyo who looked about as angry as Hotaru felt, and finally Sakaki again. "What the HELL are you doing here telling me my cat is dead?"

Trying to recover from the full-faced lie she had created, Sakaki did feel bad for what she tried to do. But Sakaki was the victim as well, victim of her addiction for cute things. But like anybody that looked like Motoko Aoyama, Sakaki was an expert in denial. "I didn't mean he was dead now…I meant in a little while so I wanted to…to spare you the pain later on."

Hotaru wasn't an idiot in any sense and didn't believe Sakaki for a nano-second. Picking her very much alive pet up, Hotaru ran full speed out of the clinic in fear the psycho would try something else. Back in clinic however something else was about to be brought to life. Crushed at losing the cute new cat, Sakaki was still happy that Chiyo was still there, but that was soon to change as Chiyo looked at her levelly and asked in a calm and cool voice, very contrary to how the petit girl was feeling mind you, "Takamichi-san didn't really die did he?"

Don't blame her, she's in the grip of her cuteness addiction-

Sipping the cola she yanked from the gapping maw of the vending machine, Hotaru was still in an adrenaline overflow when Ami tapped her on the shoulder. Dropping the nearly full soda to the ground and clutching Shinji protectively to her chest, Hotaru was nearly ready to run far away. Shinji seeing the woman was one of his classmates, wondered why Mizuno-san would know Hotaru. 'I hope Ami-san is Hotaru's friend, she seems to need friends more than I do.'

"Hotaru-chan, are you ok? You look startled." Ami asked as she took a few steps back to hopefully aid in calming the frightened girl. Out shopping with the other Inner Senshi, Ami was mildly shocked to see Hotaru out alone. 'She never leaves that house of hers, and she's been so depressed since Usagi shipped Chibi-Usa back to the thirtieth century.' Said shipment was a punishment for her aid in the kidnapping plot of an as of yet still unidentified person.

Covering her heart with her palm, Hotaru calmed dramatically. "I'm sorry Mizuno-san, it's just been a very hectic day. Are you out shopping with everybody else?" Not being graced by having the title of 'Inner' Hotaru wasn't quite accepted as well into the group. No the 'Outers' had to be loners and massively overpowered in comparison.

"Usagi and Rei are shopping for hats right now and we plan to go to that new ice cream parlor afterwards. Would you like to come with us?" Ami tried to sound sincere but Hotaru scared the willies out of the Inner Senshi as well. But with the news that a freakishly powerful blue haired Oni was destroying random buildings, it wasn't really random buildings, Kos-Mos just destroyed any animal sanctuary after she saw Shinji wasn't there. She really didn't want to check each place more than once. Ami had thought maybe having some more firepower wouldn't be such a bad thing.

Shinji at this time I should note, has been totally enraptured by the flowing ribbons on Ami's school uniform and thought he wanted to bite it. 'Damn…cat instincts…can't…fight…ooooh it's wavy!' Was all Shinji thought as he dived out of Hotaru's arms and onto Ami and her ribbon. Sadly due to the rather perverse sense of fashion most uniform makers in Japan had, that meant Shinji was clawing his way into Ami's chest. Something neither girl really wanted to either see or feel.

Startled by the sudden weight and tiny sharp things now protruding into her body Ami stumbled backward and fell onto the rather unforgiving ground. "Hotaru-chan when did you get a pet?" Ami didn't want to let the animal's actions anger her, but you can only have so many things jump at you in a given day before you get upset. Again I must say, Shinji happily chewed on his kill. The ribbon had been no match for him and his tiny claws of doom.

Hotaru had many possible solutions to the problem of the tiger, ribbon, and Ami's chest quandary. She could let Shinji continue to eat the ribbon, try and pull him off causing more pain for Ami, or she could let Ami handle it. Hotaru chose the third option, as it was the easiest way to deal with things. Ami dealt with it in a typical Ami fashion, she just accepted it quietly. The two girls conversed as Shinji dined on his pray, oblivious to the worried and frantically searching Misato that walked past him and missed seeing him in Ami's lap. She had been drinking heavily since the day before so Misato can't be totally held accountable.

After Shinji lost interest in the ribbon and prominently fell asleep in Ami's arms. Hotaru helped the fallen Senshi of water to her feet. "Sorry about that Mizuno-san, he just likes to play," Hotaru assumed. "And I would love to go with you, but sadly Michiru and Haruka-san want to talk to me tonight so I must decline."

Ami nodded, nobody dared defy Haruka or 'Butch' as she was jokingly named when nobody loyal to her was around. Handing the sleeping cub to the waiting arms of Hotaru, Ami spotted another cat. "That's to bad Hotaru-chan, but we understand. Don't we Luna?" Ami asked as she used the new black cat to cover the tiny rips in her top.

"Ami-chan what are you doing? Put me down!" Luna yelled indignantly at the sudden physical abuse and harassment. She had just come back from scouting out the new ice cream shop the Senshi were to visit and wasn't in the mood for handling. Sure the shop seemed find, it was called "The Evil Ice Cream Parlor" and nobody could tell when it showed up first, people vanished after eating the food, but surely that had nothing to do with the Sailor Senshi. Not like it ever happened before, happened all the time, or would happen again. But it would, as always, and the new shop would be burnt to the ground by the Senshi after the battle that they should have known was coming but didn't.

Ami, embarrassed from the lack of material at certain key places on her body, just continued to hold Luna. "So how did your scouting mission go Luna…and why are you looking at Hotaru's pet like that?" Sure enough Luna's keen eye for observation quickly saw the new member of the group and was intrigued, it wasn't everyday she was in the presence of very attractive cats, Atermis was far from ideal, but he was the only cat that could talk besides her.

In his semi-conscious state, Shinji knew Luna was speaking but believed it was a dream. 'Cats can't talk…I'm just going crazy is all,' Shinji rationalized then tried to hid from the sun by pressing his face against the nearest object, that being his paw. It wasn't the best day from him, the catnip was wearing off and it had left one nasty headache in its wake. Luna, while Shinji slept, took a few whiffs of him and placed his scent, but being the conniving female she was, wasn't about to tell anybody. If the cute and very polite boy stayed a cat, she could have a chance with him.

"Sorry to keep you waiting Ami-cha…" Usagi's voice went from happy and hyper to utter silence as Hotaru gazed balefully at her. Hotaru didn't take the banishment of her only friend well. The future leader of Earth, in a show of utter bravery and diplomacy, hid behind Ami and propelled both her own body and Ami's at breakneck speeds away from Hotaru, leaving Rei who was still finishing up paying the bill alone and neglected. Hotaru simply pointed in their direction when the raven-haired Senshi of fire emerged from the store. Hotaru had other things on her mind, like dealing with her guardians 'talk.'

Doesn't it scare you to think Usagi will rule Earth? It does me-

With supper a thing of the past, Haruka was ready to start the dreaded talk with her adopted daughter. It was something that was prolonged for to long, Hotaru was getting older and more attractive so surely this was pertinent. "Michi-chan why don't you get her into the study and I'll be there in a minute, need to use the privy first ok," Haruka added a nice plain pat on Michiru's rear end to send her off faster. That was something else that was being prolonged too much, and Haruka didn't want to wait for that either.

Giggling at her significant others odd way of showing affection, Michiru was already making plans for the role-playing session that was to come later, hopefully after Hotaru was sleeping. "We'll be waiting for you so don't take to long now ok?" Waving at the woman of her life, Michiru went to claim their daughter for what was to be the longest night of Hotaru's life.

Watching Michiru walk away, well part of Michiru…ok she was checking out Michiru as she left, but they were in love so it was ok, wasn't it? Haruka took a moment to wonder why Hotaru had quickly ran to her room upon arriving home and not heading right to the kitchen table. She had later over supper learned that Hotaru was a little up set after a run in with Usagi. 'Mmmm….Usagi wonder if I can convince Michiru and her to…later…later.' Right now Haruka had business to attend to. Grabbing the sports page and a glass of water, Haruka headed to the bathroom.

Where upon opening the door, dropped the glass of water, the paper, and fainted. While it isn't necessarily a strange thing to see a cat using the toilet, it was a strange thing to see one using the toilet while reading a book and using toilet paper. Haruka's mind couldn't come to terms with all of that at one time and her mind took the option of shutting down for some mandatory self-improvement classes.

'Oh no! Did I kill that lady?' Shinji thought as he finished his business and wandered over to Haruka. Without hands Shinji was in a bind for a way to wake the woman, if she could in fact be woken. With no recourse, 'Maybe I can nudge her awake…wonder why she was so astonished to see me.' Taking a few steps back, Shinji rushed and collided his head with the side of Haruka's face. It did the trick and moments later he was being carried by the skin behind his neck into the study.

Not fully understanding what she had seen, Haruka was only aware of one thing. "Hotaru Tomoe what did we tell you about having pets!" That thing was Hotaru had snuck a cat into her house. Even though it was a cute one and she had no real problems with pets, Hotaru had broken the number one rule of the house.

"Sorry Haruka-san, I didn't know it was male when I rescued it from dying in the rain yesterday," Hotaru apologized as she reclaimed Shinji from Haruka's angered hand. How Haruka found the animal was a something the other two would wonder about in the future, but never receive an answer for. "I'm just…holding him until I find his real owners," Hotaru added to calm the angry woman.

Taking her seat next to Michiru, Haruka let the incident pass. "We'll discuss this another time, because tonight we want to talk to you about something serious." Haruka soon felt the nervous fingers of Michiru entwine with hers. It was going to be hard to talk about such a sensitive subject, but such had to be done or who knows what problems could happen.

Picking up where Haruka left off, Michiru looked softly at Hotaru. "Some of what we have to say may sound scary, or wrong, but it's actually a beautiful thing. And we're sure you're ready to know it." Butterflies of worry and anticipation started flapping their wings in both women's stomach. Being only a few years older than her in reality, neither seemed to realize that only three years ago they had heard this same talk.

"If you have any questions, or feel the need to take a break that's fine," Haruka said, more for her own good than Hotaru's. But even as she spoke, her eyes darted to the male in their midst. 'That damn conniving feline! Look at how it already worked its claws into our sweet daughter…how it demands to be held and pet.' Shinji would have very much at that moment be far away, and after the whole talk ended pleaded to the Gods to answer why they had insisted he hear it, but was firmly in Hotaru's grip. "I'm going to be Frank and Earnest with you Hotaru.

Cutting in on accident Michiru added, "I love it when you're Frank," then proceeded to turn a very unique shade of red and looked elsewhere. Shaking off, well trying to anyway, the growing sense of shame, Michiru tried to cover. "You're getting to the age Hotaru when your hormones are starting to take over and you may find yourself suddenly at their mercy."

"Some nice woman might appear in your life and you'll fall in love with her." Haruka finished for Michiru. It never occurred to them that Hotaru might not actually be a lesbian as they were so they didn't think of the idea of Hotaru falling in love with a man was possible. "When that certain woman enters your life, eventually you'll want to show your love for them physically, and since Kami-sama cursed us upon birth you'll have to know a few things."

Hotaru just gapped at her guardians as they went on about batteries, accessories, and other things that are stereotypically involved in same sex relationships. Had you placed a glass of water next to her face it would have only taken moments for it to begin to boil. Shinji was in a near, forgive the pun, catatonic state after Haruka volunteered to show Hotaru what she meant. Thankfully Michiru said that wouldn't have been appropriate. In the end however Hotaru looked at both of the good intention filled women and said, "I'm sorry Haruka-san, Michiru-san but I'm attracted to men," and ran off to her room with Shinji in her arms.

The statement filled both women with mixed emotions. Haruka spoke first. "Where did we go wrong Michi-chan? We tried to show her that men are perverted nasty beasts, yet she finds that attractive?" How any woman would allow herself to be subjugated and controlled buy such brutish and idiotic creatures was beyond Haruka's ability to understand.

Squeezing Haruka's hand, Michiru had the silver lining in mind already though. "But this means we don't have to worry about her seeing Chibi-Usa you know." And in a moment of deliberation, Haruka understood that having Hotaru be a normal heterosexual female was a good thing, as Chibi-Usa was something they didn't want to deal with.

If you think that was bad, you should read the original idea Golden and I had for it-

Dressed and ready for bed, Hotaru tried her best to forget all that her guardians had said and the horrid mental images that accompanied them. Climbing under her thin covers and turning off the light on her end table, Hotaru looked at Shinji and pet his ears again. Shinji had he known the full number of times he had missed possible liberation would have felt even worse than he did right now, but something about the girl made Shinji feel glad he was their to help her.

His heart took one nasty blow after another the whole day. Seeing Hotaru in the morning, countless girls pressing him to their chests as they hugged him, and the odd drug induced hysteria from after the clinic visit, but the worst was to come. As he curled into a ball by Hotaru's side, the young girl said one thing to him that caused him to want to cry. "I love you Tiger Cub-san, I really do." Those emotional filled words hurt Shinji more than any physical blow could, because he knew he couldn't stay with her, he was using her in his current form, and in the end he would have to leave her. But for now, he could be there for her, and help her. Getting back unto his paws, Shinji crawled over next to Hotaru's face, nuzzled her compassionately, even Shinji could tell the girl needed that more than anything, then fell asleep.

Hotaru couldn't have been any happier.

I always cry at sad endings…don't you?-

Author notes!

I'm sure you're thinking what about Kos-Mos! Rei! Asuka! Attim! And countless other people. Well that's what the next chapter is going to be. I wanted one chapter with just Shinji being dragged around in his tiger cub form, and another chapter with everybody looking for him.

I know this chapter might not be the same as the previous, but I wanted to write it this way so…I did. I hope you liked it none-the-less and I hope you continue to support me and my writings.

Ja mata

Zentrodie (zentrodie-at-secondimpact-dot-com)

Updated Battle lines!

Those siding with Kos-Mos: Xeo, Konos the Grey, ScienceMonkey, Nicknack, DarkChuchuo, Sybian Machine, Final Max, Crrot, Sol bandus, Pandomine, Vaurnut, NickNack, Soulless, Sleepy Kitty, Deus, renzokuken-sama, James Ray Edwards, KevinEc, Alpha Draconis1, a fan3, Science Monkey, Darklion74, Serpent Spy, Soulless, Jin Kazemeijin, Kyubi, CheeseKing, Typhon, "The Man in the Pallid Mask," Cyber Angel One, Sideris, Anomaly27, Slayer6, SickToTheGore, Tempest Destiny, Le Bete Noir, Urtv 17, Ordinary Joe, Sideris, Absu7, B52, SilentAssasinMecha, Hokage-Sama, Drakandrin, Tonberry, URTV-666, U-DO, Wings of Lead, l33t0n3, Obsessed Uber Rei, Imaginary404, KinZoku, Renzokuken-sama, rongten, Alexander-K Total: 55

Those wanting a Harem: deinku, VCR, Jon Cook (w/o Asuka), mc2rpg, Positron(for now), Hank, Finalfantasyxii, chan,ken, kins of Ireland, Mordamir, Kman, Valtiel, Epsilon, ShadowCascade, EchoGarrote, Vic, Frank the Bunny (Don't chain me up!), NateGold, Gord, Slake-Sama, Zemzaba, TheWickerMan, Dark Anomaly, Bobby, (Unknown mass), Masumune, Variable Creatue, Tyson, Drake Smith, Rusty Knight, Bonta-Kun ,Production, Messiah3, WingOmega, DarkStarlkerFan (and wait), Crono10, Aladeth, Vic, Idiot564, ChronoTravel, Blood of Odin, Kman,Razial the Damned, Warden, Zang-Sama, Jizzle the uncontrollable Jazzle, NefCanuck, ChronoTravel, Andrew Joshua, JWM Talon, Dwing, Tracker, Combat, DWD, North freezing(and don't count Attim out!), Ttestagr Total: 54

Those siding with Rei: Otaku-Dman, Vibious, SoulFire, Macavity the Mystery Cat, Dark Machine, Philg, NickNack, Azurewind, Redmage2k, Rei-aka-Ayanami-chan, jennyjennie, rgreat, Katfum, Oni-Otaku, wiseman, Crimson Arrow, Player0, GoldmonX, Mak, Pert-kun, The Mad Shoe, Mattman65, Herder of cats, DeathScyth, Seraphy, TheCrawlingChaos, Lord Amon Total: 27

Those siding with Asuka: Kusinagi, Nova10, Vibious, Final Max, Kuracao, Redshadow64, xXx, Supereva0102, Asuka-fan, SOMEBODY, Supereva01, Knighsshadow, WarpWizard, Dude, Dragon's death, Uniden, A/S Fan X 2, Edhunne, Old Foo, Deathaanimefan32l, Sledge, Soul Eva, KoalaKiller Total: 24

Those siding with Blue haired girlsOrganized Kaos, Trikster , Kima Prideflame, Nick McC, Shinzaku, M.E.S.S, Total: 7

Those siding with Sasami: Doggystyle, razzor15, Vaurnut, Golden Kitsune, Omrianh Total: 5

Those siding with Mana: Steve Vader, Chewy, Player 0 Total: 3

Those siding with Yui Ikari: Education, total: 1

Those siding with Shion Uzuki: Remenants, Final Max Total : 2

Those siding with Misato: Kippenberger, JVR Total: 2

Those siding with Hikari: Amathyst Wind Total: 1

Those siding with Aisha Clan Clan: Bloody Angel X Total: 1

Those siding with Hotaru Tomoe: Doomed One Total: 1

And there you have it! Kos-Mos is still in the lead but not by much! The harem forces have regrouped and launched a counter offensive on the android, but who is this in the wings? Asuka's forces have started a rallying call and could topple over the Rei forces soon, and Hotaru is low now, but in time the young Senshi of death could be a contender!

But what of our lovely warriors in the war for Shinji's heart? What will they doing now as Shinji sleeps in the loving arms of Hotaru? Well that's where your votes come into play! The higher the votes the more screen time said ladies will get in the next chapter!

Will Kos-Mos get the majority of the time, another reward for her siders? OR will somebody else steal the spot light as the lovely ladies hunt for they kitty they love? All this and more in the next odd chapter of this story…and yes I am going to finally met and conquer my next writing challenge and claim my temple!


	16. So clean yet so dirty

Standard disclaimer!

Well it finally happened; this story received its first flame. Sad yes? And it made me stop and think about this story. Is it actually good? Should I continue it? Then I stopped thinking about it. First and foremost I write because I enjoy it, not for the 'love and praise' of readers. While you guys do make me move faster with positive feedback, I shouldn't let one person who didn't even read past chapter 2 make me stop. So…I press on and for those of you that stay the course and take this journey with me into the odder reaches of my imagination, thank you.

With that bout of seriousness out of the way shall we get started?

X-X

What We Make Of It

Chapter 16 – The Search

Or

If only they'd use their powers for good

A full week had past and yet the full power of Nerv could not find a single white tiger cub in the city. "How damn incompetent are you people?" Misato shouted as she walked past a group of section two agents, said agents ran quickly away. Her destination was Ritsuko's lab where work on the vaccine had been progressing rather slowly. Standing outside of the cold metal door that separated her from the research crew, Misato slammed her fist into the wall resulting in a nice welt on her hand and a dull thud sound vibrating in the corridor. 'I need you Shinji, why can't we find you?' Sure Misato needed Shinji for many reasons, the apartment was dirty, Asuka had accidentally burnt all the food, she was out of beer, all her good clothing was dirty, but mostly she missed him because she cared deeply for him.

Misato, while examining her shoes as she tried to regain her composure didn't notice the door sliding open in response to her unique knock. "Oh Misato, glad to see you here, care for some cocoa?" Maya chirped happily as she offered the Captain a steaming cup of molten chocolate. Of all of Nerv, Maya seemed the least affected by the events of the past week. Sure Maya was sad Shinji was missing, but she as she told everybody else, 'Being a tiger has to be the coolest! He's so lucky!' Nobody else was quite as willing to agree, but nobody told Maya that.

"It's about time you showed up Misato, how are the reports looking?" Shion asked as she tried her best to interpret Ritsuko's notes on the feline adaptation serum. The lovely brown haired scientist wasn't in a good mood either. Kos-Mos was causing millions in damages as she searched, and the bill came her way, and first and foremost she wasn't a chemical scientist she was a robotics expert. 'How am I supposed to follow that mad scientists research and save my future husband?' Seeing the look of anger firmly on Misato's face, Shion knew the answer. 'Section 2 really isn't that good are they.'

Drinking the hot liquid that Maya provided and feeling the need for an insulin shot to counteract the overdose of sugar, Misato picked up the latest update on Shion's progress. The results weren't to Misato's liking, and as such Misato promptly grabbed a nearby scalpel and proceeded to hang the nasty report to the wall with excessive force. Maya eeped and excused herself from the room, she was just the data entry clerk anyway. "Why haven't you found the cure yet? Turning him into an aardvark isn't any better than a cat!" Sure once Shinji was found, and he would be even if Misato had to burn the city to the ground, he was scheduled to move out of her place, but Misato had a plan for that. She'd get Gendo to reconsider, or simply kill him she didn't know what she had planned yet.

A weak voiced called from the corner, "If you freed me, I could help her Misato. I did invent the serum you know." Ritsuko's body, suspended upside down from the ceiling and bound in chains, wasn't taking the redirection of blood flow well. Her face beet red as well as her eyes, Ritsuko most of all wanted a cigarette. "And why don't you ask Kaji to help you find Ikari-kun?" The response to Ritsuko's questioning was a piece of duct tape being re-applied over her mouth. 'Damn bitches, so I made a mistake, why are they so obsessed over Shinji anyway?' And yes Ritsuko just plainly didn't know the reason.

Walking back around to her workstation, Shion looked rather content with the tape job she did to Ritsuko. Nobody felt ready to trust Ritsuko with anything other than breathing right now. She hadn't earned the right yet. Shion sighed in exasperation however once she looked at her job again. "I just can't follow these notes. She talks about extracting cat genes on paragraph then goes into ancient Egyptian mythology the next; it's a mine field of logic." Pushing her slipping glasses back up her nose, Shion needed a break. "So how IS the search going, have you thought about telling anybody outside of Nerv yet about this?"

Misato just shook her head; Gendo had forbid anybody not immediately in the need to know about the situation. That meant the only the other pilots, who had yet to actually pilot, Kos-Mos, and section two knew about the events leading to Shinji's escape. 'If I have to tell Sasami it's classified one more time though I think that lil freak guardian of hers is going to nuke my apartment.' As she was the head of the search group Misato took it personally that they were failing. "Section two believes the most likely situation is either somebody has found him and has yet to bring him to a shelter, or he…" Misato's voice faltered slightly as she tried to find the courage to speak, "or he's been killed."

They all believed that if Shinji were under his own power he'd have found a way back to either Nerv or Misato's apartment. As Shinji was being pampered by Hotaru daily and being locked in the house when she wasn't around, his options were limited. Remembering the other reason she came to check on Shion, Misato reached deeply into her pocket and withdrew a slim piece of paper. Shion looked at it with dread, and Asuka felt much better at that moment. "Accounting's newest estimate on Kos-Mos's damages and the cost at repairing all those shelters." Even Misato's face brightened slightly as she saw the good doctor Shion's face crumble a bit. 'Serves you right for creating the Kos-Mos problem anyway.'

X-Why does Nerv have to pay for things anyway? If they fail everybody dies-X

Being a demon gave Asuka a few advantages in the search for her vassal that the other meat puppets didn't have. One she could fly, which she was doing right now, two she could commission the lesser species to do her bidding, lots of other dogs and cats searching for her, and lastly she had heightened senses. The last thing however wasn't such a blessing in the city of Tokyo-3. "This place smells terrible!" Asuka mumbled for the twentieth time that day. Thinking of her missing vassal left the princess of Hell in a sour state of mind, 'I just get the ultimate vassal and they keep loosing him!' the other problem Asuka was having was flying next to her.

"I believe we should check down there," Rei stated in a voice much more powerful than she usually used. Reading Oh! My Goddess again, Rei this time did adapt to Belldandy, and as such was both very nervous and extremely powerful. Looking at the Demon beside her, Rei didn't feel the revulsion she was supposed to, again thanks to Belldandy's personality. 'Anybody helping me to find Shinji-kun can't be all bad,' Rei reasoned as the two flew high over the buildings of Tokyo-3. An explosion off to the far north signaled that Kos-Mos had again failed to find Shinji.

Wanting nothing more than to crush the half angel next to her, Asuka just sniffed indignantly. "Didn't I tell you Angel-Girl that I can use my powers to have the lower beings search for him for me? We don't have to go anywhere until they tell me they spotted him." As of yet nothing had even twitched signaling her vassal was found, and that irked Asuka to no end. Her body came to a sudden stop however when something DID catch her attention. "THEY HAVE THE NEW KERO-CHAN PLUSHY!" Asuka was then on a speedy descent to the nearby toy store to feed her addiction.

Not wanting to offend her demonic friend, Rei hadn't told Asuka that she too had minions working for her. Birds, squirrels, and positively charged elemental beings were scouring the city along side their demonic counterparts. 'Oh Shinji-san, where are you? Why don't you let us find you?' Slowing her speed down, Rei hovered in mid-air, causing several low flying planes to bank very quickly lest they crash into her. Calling to her Mother for help, Rei kept seeing a bathhouse, and she didn't know why. "Mother, are you telling me I have to clean myself first?"

A loud voice emanating from the ground broke Rei's internal revelry. A very impatient Asuka needed something only Rei could provide, "Hey Angel-Girl bring money! These fooling humans still don't accept me as their lord and master!" Why such weak things didn't acknowledge her obvious superiority by un-divine right was beyond the annoyed princess. 'Once he's by my side…we'll show all these pitiful humans.' Giddy with anticipation and the soft and pleasing plushy flesh in her arms, Asuka was slowly becoming to like the human world. As Rei landed and handed over her pocket book, Asuka even started to like Rei, 'Maybe I won't kill her, just make her my slave.'

X- See even demons can be nice –X

'Why does this city have so many animal sanctuaries!' Kos-Mos swore as she left the ruined hovel that had once been the 'Friends of Animal's' building. Dogs, cats, and an occasional gerbil ran in all directions. This had been the forth such establishment the android had leveled this day alone. 'And none of them have seen my Master,' Kos-Mos thought sadly. She had wanted to repay her master for the gift of life he had continued to bestow upon her, yet what did she do? Chase after him trying to hurt if not kill him while he was afflicted. "Damn you Akagi! If I knew my Master didn't need you to cure him I'd have launched you into lower orbit!"

As the semi-human prepared to leap into the sky in her continued search a voice pierced the sky. A voice full of passion and power, not asking but demanding authority as it filled Kos-Mos's audio sensors. "Stop in the name of the Moon!" Turning to see what new branch of law enforcement had come to stop her this time, Kos-Mos wondered what right the moon had to have to enforce laws on Earth, then she saw who was talking, she had seen them before during the kidnapping fiasco. "How dare you destroy these havens for the unfortunate animals of this city? We the Sailor Senshi will not stand idly by while you do this!"

Not one to follow doctrine, Kos-Mos wasn't about to let Sailor Moon say her whole dialogue, no she was already launching at the Champions of Justice with her R-Scythe ready. 'They had some part in the kidnapping, maybe they have done it again!' was the driving thought as Kos-Mos's body filled with internal fire and resolve. 'There are more of them this time,' Kos-Mos realized as three other warriors stood off to the side, only one had an actual weapon, a glaive if her memory banks were accurate. Diving to avoid the incoming projectile fired by the one with short blond hair, "Why are you preventing me from finding my Master?"

Unseen by the other Senshi, Hotaru took a step back. The whole week spent with her best friend, Tiger Cub-san, who had did so much in such a short time to massively increase her pleasure in life, Hotaru had wondered about his previous owners. Then two days ago the Inner Senshi came to her home and asked them to help them stop the blue haired Oni that was destroying animal sanctuaries. It didn't take much speculation on Hotaru's part to put two and two together to realize Tiger Cub-san was the intended target. 'So she either owns him, or knows his owner.' Tightening the grip on her weapon, Hotaru was left with only one recourse. Dispatch the Oni and claim Tiger Cub-san as her own, permanently. And Hotaru Tomoe had taken her first step towards the Dark Side of the Force, but since she wasn't a Jedi, it mattered not.

"We don't know anything about your 'Master' all we know is you're destroying our beloved city!" Usagi yelled as she prepared to launch another attack at the vile pet shop destroying thing. The Inner Senshi weren't taking the absence of their desired new member well either, for those who hadn't have a private visit it wasn't so bad, but Rei and Makoto were hit hard from Shinji's absence. Finding this battle as a good way to relieve excess frustration, the Senshi unleashed a torrent of elemental attacks that kept the android on her toes and on the defensive.

'Powerful,' Kos-Mos had to admit as her scanners viewed the read-outs on each attack. Had she fought them one-on-one it would have been no-contest, but they were a team, and fought like a well-oiled machine. Ok maybe that last part was a stretch, but they did continue to fire off indiscriminately causing massive damage themselves, but hey they were the good girls so it was ok. Her optic sensors overwhelmed with varying power sources, Kos-Mos sought the leader, 'If I can take out the leader maybe they'll retreat.' Throwing herself to the ground to avoid a flaming arrow that burnt her slower descending hair, Kos-Mos sought the most powerful signature, surely that would be the leader.

Pressing their advantage, the Senshi surrounded the woman, who looked odd enough to be an Oni so they never questioned the large degree of technology in her construction. Haruka seeing Hotaru falling back, "Saturn take the rear! We can't let it escape again!" All this fighting was doing much to put Haruka in a very happy mood she loved a good fight. 'Why can't I take the rear just once,' Haruka thought as her eyes wafted over a certain pigtailed girl.

Her battle sensors picking up every word, even the comments about her lack of clothing, Kos-Mos heard the order to the one called Saturn. 'Such power…she is clearly the leader,' her battle algorithm calculated. Jumping to her feat Kos-Mos launched herself at Hotaru. Her suddenness of action took the young women by surprise. Placing her larger palms on the frightened shoulders of Sailor Saturn, Kos-Mos shoved the girl to the unforgiving ground and quickly shifted her weight to her forearm and placed that on the girl's neck. "You will all stand down if you value this ones life," Kos-Mos's emotionless voice cut the air like a knife.

Stopping immediately, the Sailor Senshi all gapped at how quickly the tide of the battle had changed against them. Yet why would an Oni not just kill them, why order them to stop moving. Taking a step forward, Usagi owed up to her saving of Hotaru in the past, and accepting her own fate as being the true leader. "Release her; if you must kill somebody let it be me!" Rei tried to reach out to Usagi but Michiru held her back, they wanted Hotaru alive, and they couldn't betray their princess's wishes anyway.

Relaxing somewhat as her plan worked, Kos-Mos had not anticipated what occurred next. She eyes welled up red, her nose clogged, and she sneezed. It then took a fraction of a second for her brain to calculate what had caused it. Looking down at the frightened yet fierce girl underneath her, Kos-Mos's olfactory senses computed the precise scent. Her eyes opening wide in shock, Kos-Mos went from shock to anger before Hotaru had the chance to release even one strangled breath. "YOU HAVE HIM!" The enraged machine bellowed as she leaned back to gain enough momentum to slam Hotaru's head all the way to America.

The opening was wide enough for Minako to wrap her 'love chain' around Kos-Mos's hand and pull the very heavy machine off of Hotaru's body. Coughing heavily, Hotaru was gathered into the waiting arms of Ami and Haruka. Not wanting to admit defeat, Usagi just turned away from Kos-Mos, "We'll stop you next time, and don't you believe otherwise!" Then the Senshi scattered to help Sailor Saturn recover from the attack Kos-Mos and thrust upon her.

Angered but overjoyed at the same time, Kos-Mos was smiling and crying. Her eyes shifted to a beautiful cerulean blue as she watched the last of the Senshi escape. Rubbing her sore wrists where the attack had been made, and the side that crushed against the ground as she was pulled, Kos-Mos had found her enemies. "The small one had Master's scent on her, she…she HAS him!" Relief that he wasn't dead, crushed by some car or he had fallen into an inescapable pit, but angered beyond human comprehension at the knowledge that somebody was cuddling her Master, Kos-Mos wouldn't be destroying anymore animal sanctuaries, no she had bigger fish to fry.

X- Is it wrong to have the forces of Good fight each other? –X

Pinching her nose as she slid out of the closet door that connected her pocket-dimension home to the Katsuragi domicile, Sasami hope the smell wouldn't kill her. In one week the once spotless apartment degraded into something one might see in a third-world country. 'Don't these women know how to clean?' Sasami thought as she saw Asuka and Misato in the kitchen arguing. Sasami had cried a lot over the past week, worried, frightened, and at times she cried in anger and frustration. Nobody told her anything! Why didn't she deserve to know what happened to Shinji. But no more miss nice princess slash future embodiment of a Goddess. Tsunami herself had talked to her and promised to help with the upcoming confrontation.

"I told you Asuka you can't burn the rats out! You'll destroy the apartment!" Misato yelled at her unwanted new flat-mate. Having returned from work and wanting a nice hot bath to calm her frazzled nerves, Misato wasn't happy at what she found. Asuka had filled the bathtub with blood from unknown creatures, for unknown purposes. Later Asuka said it was to summon a defiler to hunt Shinji down. Not liking the name at all, Misato had pulled the plug draining the dark red fluid down the drain where it ate away at the sewer system. Misato's hand was still dark red with dried blood.

Stomping her foot, and sending dust particles into the eyes of everybody on lower floors of the apartment complex, Asuka wanted to know why. "But they ate the tag off of my Nuku-Nuku UFO catcher doll! They have to pay!" Sure Asuka had entered into a contract with the rats to find Shinji for her, but they were all way to lazy, and after seeing Rei, stopped following orders. 'Damn that Gan-Chan! Getting soft for angels and forming labor unions!'

Either not seeing, hearing, or caring about Sasami's entrance into the room, Misato dismissed the demure cough that escaped the lips of the younger girl. "I know its 'important to you' but nobody else really cares about your dumb plushies! We're looking for Shinji right now! He could be hurt or…neutered," Misato said the word with as much distaste as she could muster. "Being a cat could result in that if he is indeed in a shelter," Misato's gaze bore directly into Asuka's eyes, the hellion couldn't have been phased less.

"You just told somebody outside of Nerv Misato, doesn't that break security policies," Asuka's voice chipper and polite. She did love giving bad news to anybody and everything under father's ex-wife's sky. And although Sasami would have to be put down for having pre-existing relations with her vassal, Asuka could sense a purpose inside the blue haired woman that could be of use. "So Sasami, what do you think of that, Shinji being turned into a tiger cub?"

All her plans, her words worked out in advance for this moment, the chance to find out what had actually been going on, had all be wasted. 'I'd smack Misato for wasting my efforts if it would do anything,' Sasami fumed as she sat down. She knew now about what had happened, but something didn't seem right, "Did you say tiger cub?" The question was originally directed at Misato, but Misato's brain had gone bye-bye after the realization she could be court-martialed for breach of doctrine.

Pulling out the one security camera photo that did the subject any justice, Asuka handed the other princess the photo of Shinji dodging Kos-Mos's attack that would have taken his head off. "Doesn't that put chills down your spine? I mean she claims to love him and she almost killed him." The irony was Asuka wasn't at all happy with the scene as she tried to be. She wanted her vassal back, and in one piece. 'Get him back…lay waste to rest of humanity to keep them from doing anything else to him.'

Sasami just looked at the photo and sweat started to pour down her face. She had seen him, Shinji had tried to contact her, he actually rubbed against her leg but she didn't know! "I've seen him! A girl at our school had him with her!" Misato's daze was broken in that split second and Sasami was given one of the scariest experiences in her life. Misato drove her to Nerv to get Attim to talk to her, Attim who was currently interrogating everybody that had been at the hospital, and not so subtly probing their minds. Asuka flew after them, followed by Rei who had been listening from the other room where she had been playing a game of cards with the rats that took up residence in the garbage piles in the living room.

X- So they can't clean, did you expect them to be able to? –X

Sparing the disheveled young princess a sidelong glance, Misato was feeling slightly responsible for the girl's dirty appearance. "Look Sasami…I didn't mean to…um…I didn't know you…how was I supposed to know you got car sick?" Looking at the rather unique texture on Sasami's formal kimono, Misato tried to ignore the snide comments from the back seat. After Attim was able to sketch out a likeness of the girl Sasami saw with Shinji, they group choose to go back to Misato's to plan the next day's events, those being find girl, get Shinji, and arrest the girl.

But midway back to Misato's place, the reckless driving added with Attim's slight interrogation caused Sasami to, how to put this delicately, show everybody what she had eaten that day. With the bathtub still showing sings of being alive or at the least possessed, Misato had no recourse but to pay for a trip to a bathhouse. The newly released Ritsuko had jumped at the chance to clean a weeks worth of dirt, sweat, and whatever passerby's threw on her away. Asuka and Attim had said it was a good idea too and joined. It was Ritsuko and Asuka making comments that it was Misato's bad driving that resulted in the mess in the first place so she had to pay for all of them.

Never being so embarrassed in her life, Sasami just looked at her hands as she placed them at odd angles on her waste to avoid further defilement. "Its ok Misato-san, today's been good overall right? I mean we know who has Shinji, and hopefully the school records will help us in finding him right?" The group nodded in agreement as Misato pulled up to the Tokinoyu bathhouse, it was the easiest to find because it had an odd decoration of a space ship sticking out of the top of it.

Piling out of the car, Attim spotted something she rather wished she hadn't. "Shion, Kos-Mos how odd to see the two of you out of Nerv, they finally kick you out?" Attim walked over to Shion who was just about to enter the bathhouse. Attim blamed a lot of extra work on Shion and Kos-Mos. Shion for making the android, and the android for having way too much power and not enough sense to use it properly.

Shrugging off Attim's comments Shion paid the oddly dressed door greeter, she had cat ears of all things, and walked into the woman's changing room. "Kos-Mos got really beat up today, but she won't say by what. So since the showers at Nerv are bugged by the Commander I chose to take her here." It was common knowledge to those in the scientific community, meaning Shion and Ritsuko, that the commander was a massive pervert and taped just about everything he could. Attim didn't know that and just stared blankly at Shion until the good scientist started to disrobe, "Will you stop watching me, you'll give the other girls here ideas."

Soon the other girls joined up with Attim, and Rei meekly walked through the doors after them. "You left me alone at Nerv, why didn't you tell me you were coming to the bathhouse?" Rei's demure and passive voice asked as she quickly tossed her clothing into the waiting baskets. Taking her Mother's visions as a sign she needed cleaning, Rei had tried her apartment, that was a bad idea as she got more dirt on her than off, then opted to go to the bathhouse.

"Didn't know you'd be brave enough to show yourself in the buff Angel-Girl," Asuka said confidently as she let the disguise of clothing vanish and then looked at the older women and wished she hadn't. 'What have they been eating? Well good for them…hope they enjoy the back problems they'll have later in life,' yes Asuka didn't like the look of the other more full bodied women, but hell, she could reduce them to ashes if it became an issue for her vassal.

Already in the baths, another group of girls relaxed after a hard battle. Haruka had insisted that they all nurse their wounds at the bathhouse, her treat. Knowing that to go would mean subjecting themselves to her gaze, the others were leery at first, but Hotaru was going to be with them, so it Haruka couldn't be to bad. Sinking deeper into the water, Usagi was glad for the chance at a nice hot dip, "So Hotaru, going to show us what you snuck in here?" Usagi had high hopes that the big bag Hotaru brought in was full of goodies, snacks, and other sweet treats.

Blushing softly and leaning over the edge of the bath, Hotaru felt even more jealous than Asuka right now, Hotaru opened her bag. "Tiger Cub-san looked like he could use a bath too so I brought him with us." Pulling the animal out of her bag, Hotaru wondered if he was sleeping, his eyes were clenched tightly shut. "He's an animal so I doubt the owner would be upset I snuck him in." Which was true as Shinji wasn't the only animal in the female side of the bathhouse. The owner, one Kazuto Tokinoyu, didn't mind as long as the owners cleaned up any messes left behind.

Snatching the animal from Hotaru's hand, Minako hugged the furry beast. "It's so cute! Isn't he the cutest thing!" Shinji at this time was very much awake, but knew where he was, so thoughtfully kept his eyes very much closed. "Time for a dip kitty cat!" Minako chirped as she unceremoniously dropped the poor animal into the water.

Pushing Minako out of the way, Ami stealth fully acquired the swimming cat and held it at arms length. Sure it had messed up one of her shirts, but it was very cute. "Awww…It looks like he got soap in his eye!" All eight Senshi let up a collective 'aw' as Ami placed the animal on the edge of the bath, "Now hold still while I check," Ami informed the terrified Shinji. Slowly pulling his eyelids apart to check for any residue that could cause the animal to suffer, Ami unknowingly gave Shinji a very unique view. Now it isn't normal for people to bath in clothing, so all nine of them, cluttered around him, had nothing on, he quickly tried to close his eyes again. That resulted in a repeat of the eye being opened, but this time, Hotaru had him on her lap, someplace he really didn't want to be.

"THERE SHE IS!" Sasami yelled as she walked into the bathing area and saw Hotaru. As her words echoed in the small room, the other Nerv employee's quickly marched into the room and rushed the bathing Sailor Senshi. What followed would have been a typical man's dream. Shinji was quickly picked up by just about every girl that had feelings for him clutched possessively to their chest, and then said girl got knocked on the head or otherwise disabled and dropped him, only to be picked up again, add rinse and repeat. The nude cat fight became a drawing attraction as the other girls bathing started cheering for whatever side they wished would win.

In the end however, Hotaru, backed into a corner holding her beloved Tiger Cub-san for dear life was looking down the eyes of one Akagi Ritsuko. The other girls were locked in skirmishes with somebody else. "Now give him to me, he belongs to us!" Ritsuko said callously as she took a step closer to the shivering Hotaru.

"You can't have him! He's mine! I love him!" Hotaru pleaded as Ritsuko slammed her larger body against the small girl. The force of the impact forced Shinji out of her hands and into Ritsuko's waiting grasp, with the prize in her arms, Ritsuko made a mad dash for the exit, Shinji peering over Ritsuko's shoulder, just saw the look of devastation on Hotaru's face. Before she was out of sight, he heard one last, "Don't take him away please!" The words dripped with sadness and pleading, but Ritsuko couldn't, and Shinji knew it, it had to be this way.

With the prize won, the girls stopped fighting, and in all their nude glory, stormed out of the bathhouse and went back to Nerv, the nice rest at the bathhouse ruined. The Sailor Senshi had something else to deal with, the crying Sailor Saturn, whose best friend had just been ripped out of her arms. They tried to console her but their words had little effect on her down spirits.

The next day however found a change for the sad girl. Despite her insistence that she not have any guests that day, Michiru forced her to see one. A sad looking boy had come to visit and begged to see Hotaru. Fixing herself up as best as she could, Hotaru hoped her eyes weren't to red to see however it was that was cruel enough to make her see reality. It was a sad looking brown haired boy. "Miss Hotaru Tomoe, my name is Ikari Shinji."

"How may I help you Ikari-kun, I'm not in the best of moods today I'm sorry," Hotaru missed to flinch that crested Shinji's face at the curt words. She was beyond caring at that moment. Her eyes caught sight of something though that her mind and heart couldn't accept. "What…do you want?"

Holding out to Hotaru a big stuffed white tiger plush toy, "We at Nerv want to convey our heart felt apologies for the actions the other day. Please take this as our way of saying we're sorry," Shinji bowed low to the girl. 'Such a kind girl deserves more than this, I caused her so much pain,' and for once Shinji was right. He had caused the girl great deals of pain, but not willingly.

Taking the plush toy in her arms, Hotaru hugged it fiercely. She knew her time with her pet was limited, but it didn't mean she had to like it. Looking at the sad boy, Hotaru saw something in his eyes, something familiar. "Thank you. Ikari-san." The word sounded nice on her tongue she reasoned. "If you'll excuse me now I do have some matters to attend to." She surprised herself by give the boy a sudden and light hug before returning into the house and shutting the door.

Shinji walked back to Misato's car, and for once the girls didn't feel jealous at seeing the person they loved hugged by another. After what had happed they let Hotaru have that one hug, after today though she would be just another rival, but for today the girl had earned a little respite. Misato smiled at Shinji and ruffled his hair lovingly, "Lets go home Shinji," sure it might not be his for long, but as long as it was his home, Misato wanted him there. "You have cleaning to do."

X-And thus ends the tails of Tiger Cub Shinji!-X

Author notes

Yes it's not funny like the other chapters, but I like drama too. I hope you liked this chapter and the addition of the other Senshi. The bathhouse scene had to be edited a little because I'm not good at writing 'risqué' situations.

Again all comments, even flames I guess, are nice and help me to move in my writing endeavors. And to all of you out there that have lost something important, may you find something of equal importance elsewhere.

Ja Mata

Zentrodie (zentrodie-at-secondimpact-dot-com)

Updated Battle lines!

Those siding with Kos-Mos: Xeo, Konos the Grey, ScienceMonkey, Nicknack, DarkChuchuo, Sybian Machine, Final Max, Crrot, Sol bandus, Pandomine, Vaurnut, NickNack, Soulless, Sleepy Kitty, Deus, renzokuken-sama, James Ray Edwards, KevinEc, Alpha Draconis1, a fan3, Science Monkey, Darklion74, Serpent Spy, Soulless, Jin Kazemeijin, Kyubi, CheeseKing, Typhon, "The Man in the Pallid Mask," Cyber Angel One, Sideris, Anomaly27, Slayer6, SickToTheGore, Tempest Destiny, Le Bete Noir, Urtv 17, Ordinary Joe, Sideris, Absu7, B52, SilentAssasinMecha, Hokage-Sama, Drakandrin, Tonberry, URTV-666, U-DO, Wings of Lead, l33t0n3, Obsessed Uber Rei, Imaginary404, KinZoku, Renzokuken-sama, rongten, Alexander-K, planket shrimp, Saint Jack, Virtigo900, Ghost140, Education Total: 60

Those wanting a Harem: deinku, VCR, Jon Cook (w/o Asuka), mc2rpg, Positron(for now), Hank, Finalfantasyxii, chan,ken, kins of Ireland, Mordamir, Kman, Valtiel, Epsilon, ShadowCascade, EchoGarrote, Vic, Frank the Bunny (Don't chain me up!), NateGold, Gord, Slake-Sama, Zemzaba, TheWickerMan, Dark Anomaly, Bobby, (Unknown mass), Masumune, Variable Creatue, Tyson, Drake Smith, Rusty Knight, Bonta-Kun ,Production, Messiah3, WingOmega, DarkStarlkerFan (and wait), Crono10, Aladeth, Vic, Idiot564, ChronoTravel, Blood of Odin, Kman,Razial the Damned, Warden, Zang-Sama, Jizzle the uncontrollable Jazzle, NefCanuck, ChronoTravel, Andrew Joshua, JWM Talon, Dwing, Tracker, Combat, DWD, North freezing(and don't count Attim out!), Ttestagr, Migele , Shiro, Kyoshin, Soul Stealer, Exocite, Kd8gun Total: 60

Those siding with Rei: Otaku-Dman, Vibious, SoulFire, Macavity the Mystery Cat, Dark Machine, Philg, NickNack, Azurewind, Redmage2k, Rei-aka-Ayanami-chan, jennyjennie, rgreat, Katfum, Oni-Otaku, wiseman, Crimson Arrow, Player0, GoldmonX, Mak, Pert-kun, The Mad Shoe, Mattman65, Herder of cats, DeathScyth, Seraphy, TheCrawlingChaos, Lord Amon, Vertigo900 Total: 28

Those siding with Asuka: Kusinagi, Nova10, Vibious, Final Max, Kuracao, Redshadow64, xXx, Supereva0102, Asuka-fan, SOMEBODY, Supereva01, Knighsshadow, WarpWizard, Dude, Dragon's death, Uniden, A/S Fan X 2, Edhunne, Old Foo, Deathaanimefan32l, Sledge, Soul Eva, KoalaKiller, GodSpeed Total: 25

Those siding with Blue haired girlsOrganized Kaos, Trikster , Kima Prideflame, Nick McC, Shinzaku, M.E.S.S, Total: 7

Those siding with Sasami: Doggystyle, razzor15, Vaurnut, Golden Kitsune, Omrianh Total: 5

Those siding with Hotaru Tomoe: Doomed One, Dchimera, Ze Black Knight, Hotaru Total: 4

Those siding with Mana: Steve Vader, Chewy, Player 0 Total: 3

Those siding with Yui Ikari: Education, total: 1

Those siding with Shion Uzuki: Remenants, Final Max Total : 2

Those siding with Misato: Kippenberger, JVR Total: 2

Those siding with Hikari: Amathyst Wind Total: 1

Those siding with Aisha Clan Clan: Bloody Angel X Total: 1

Those siding with Chiyo: Biting Cat Total: 1

Those wanting me to burn in fiery hell and never update this story again: Lord Inari Total: 1

And there you have it ladies and gentlemen. After a small bit of time, the Harem forces have regrouped and now are on equal footing with Kos-Mos! The blue haired angel has slowly climbed up but so did her demonic counter part! Asuka and Rei are still close but the demure and deadpan Ayanami continues to keep the emotional German at bay! Will she hold out till the end or will the passionate Asuka's supporters rally to her cause!

And what is this? Hotaru Tomoe shot from the bottom of the pack to the middle? Can the frail yet powerful Sailor Senshi of destruction prove to be a true contender after all? Only time can tell and you votes! And a dark flag on the horizon has finally been lifted, the dark opposing force that wishes for nobody to win and the world be destroyed, YES the call to end this story has finally been made!

Cast your votes my readers for whoever you wish! Rally your banner! Support you heroin or if hero if that is your real wish. The more supporters the more time said heroin has on the screen! (Seriously with so many characters I base a lot of scenes on the number of votes so if you want to see more Misato vote Misato, you want more time devoted to Sasami vote Sasami)

Let your opinions be heard! Ouch…my throat is sore from that last one…


	17. Its not the love line

Standard Disclaimer

Well its been a little while since I last updated this oddity know as a story. Sorry about that but I wanted to write a mst (hosted on and those take a little more time to write (well CoaEG does at least). But I'm back on this story and to make up for the rather dramatic conclusion of the last chapter I'm going to try and make this one a little more on the funny side.

Wish me luck

X-I'm going to need it –X

What We Make of It

Chapter-17

A Fiery Descent

-or-

Who knew Misato had college friends

Shinji couldn't really explain it, but waking up in his bed after such a prolonged absence just felt heavenly. Sure he felt bad about leaving the poor girl Hotaru alone, but he couldn't have been expected to give up not only his humanity but also his very life to be the girl's pet. So after he pleaded to Misato to let him give the girl the plush toy, she relented the instant his eyes seemed to begin to water, he felt better about himself a little bit. And as Misato's room had finally been fixed, at Asuka's insistence, Shinji slept alone in his room. That is if you don't count the two semi-human androids in there too. Sumomo curled up on his side, not that she did that while Shinji was asleep, and Kos-Mos in the closet.

Kos-Mos however wasn't the same Kos-Mos she had been a few weeks before. The android had made a deal with the devil so to speak, well the daughter of the devil. Asuka at seeing all of Kos-Mos's power offered her a truce. They side together against the mounting hoard of would be suitors and when Asuka finally squashed them all, with Kos-Mos's help, Asuka would assist in making Kos-Mos fully human and let her stay on as a chambermaid. But Kos-Mos, and Asuka actually, didn't truly intend to live up to the bargain. In her power-down mode, ok she was sleeping, Kos-Mos dreamed of Asuka bound in holy wards while she snuggled closer to her beloved Master. In her sleep, "Shinji-sama…don't get to close or it'll bite…he he he"

Having been kidnapped and then turned into an animal with heightened senses, Kos-Mos's dream murmurings roused Shinji from his sleep. The sunlight poured in through the small window in his new room, Asuka needed the extra room for her plushy collection. Shinji didn't mind, he didn't need the space really, stretching lazily he wiped the sleep away from his eyes and let the room come into focus. Then he screamed very loud. "ASUKA-SAN!"

Floating roughly a foot above his face, Asuka's disembodied head floated, her eyes still shut in slumber. A small trickle of drool forming at the corner of her mouth was snaking its way slowly down her chin. As the realization that for Asuka, having her head be away from her body wasn't wrong, Shinji calmed down considerably. Lying under her demonic visage Shinji couldn't stop his internal thoughts. 'She's so beautiful!' How the sunlight reflected off of her tiny little red horns, the sharpness of her nose, all if it was very captivating. 'I wonder if all female demons look like that,' Shinji wondered for a moment then smiled as the drool finally left her chin and fell onto his bed.

That was when Shinji made another discovery demonic drool was acidic. The bedding starting to burn and smoke and the need for self-preservation kicked in and Shinji threw himself out of the bed and unto the floor with a resounding crash. Moments after his head crashed on the ground, said head was held protectively and very strongly to the chest of one Misato Katsuragi. "Shinji-kun are you alright? What happened?" Misato was on overload on her watch. She had to guard against other potential kidnappers, mad doctors, Gendo…

Her own eyes finally opening as Misato bellowed and clutched Shinji so tightly that he couldn't talk even if he wanted to, Asuka phased completely into the room and sat on Shinji's bed still in her bed cloths, that being a lacy black nighty. "You ruined the moment flesh bag! I was going to wake him demon style!" Asuka said hotly as Misato's eyes focused on the newly arrived demon. Misato wasn't happy with Asuka either; the demoness had not only forced her way into her and Shinji's apartment, but also somehow got Kos-Mos to side with her.

"Asuka what are you doing in here, I thought you were going on a mission today!" Misato, still reluctant to let Shinji out of her arms was forced too as his face was turning blue. Ritsuko had, in her week of being suspended by her feet, noticed a weak pattern blue at a volcano, or maybe it was just the blood rushing to her head. Misato wasn't going to take the chance and it allowed forcing large quantities of people away and leaving Shinji in her care. "Shouldn't you be already suited up and ready to go?"

Coughing a little as the air suddenly flooded his body, Shinji looked at Asuka, saw what she was wearing, then looked away in a show of modesty. "Asuka-san you have a mission?" Shinji, who really hadn't been in the loop due to his…situation, was shocked and worried for his companion. Looking at Misato, and noticing she was actually wearing less than Asuka, which would explain a lot of why her hug felt odd, "Shouldn't I be getting ready too?" Not feeling ready for another battle, but not willing to let others risk their lives alone Shinji sense of honor kicked in.

Asuka, in a showing of support for her vassal, smirked and stood. "Are you worried about me vassal? Do you not want me to die?" The demoness was going to make her pact with her vassal complete. When a vassal claimed they would die for their master it was forever bound in hell that the two would never be separated. Shinji's head quickly nodded, he didn't want anybody to ever be hurt. Giddy with anticipation and a growing fire in her belly Asuka was actually nervous about the next question, loyalty was a scarce thing in hell. "Would you die for me my vassal?"

Before Misato could shout out any objections or cover Shinji's mouth, he spoke quietly but with determination. "I'd sooner die than let any of my friends die…so yeah." He didn't place his own life as having much meaning so why shouldn't he exchange his life for those with greater value than his. The reaction from Misato was to throw her body at Shinji's only to miss and go rolling across the floor. Asuka had beaten her to the punch and had the hapless boy pinned against the wall. Pressing certain assets against his chest, Shinji wasn't really apt to speak. "A-Asuka-san?"

Answering Shinji's confusion with a small chaste kiss on the cheek. "So it is done. I'm off now to help my slave," for those of you who forgot that's Kaji, "I'll be back to reward you for your loyalty." Kissing his other cheek Asuka stood looked at the waking Kos-Mos, smirked again and jumped into a spinning circle of fire and was gone.

Rubbing his cheeks softly with his hand, Shinji wondered what exactly he had just done. Misato, back on her hands and knees crawled over to Shinji. Taking his face in her hands turned his head to face her. Finding his eyes wide as saucers and a low blush on his face Misato shivered in anticipation. "Shinji-kun do you mean that…you'd…you'd die for me?" Still unable to speak, Shinji nodded softly and then Kos-Mos had to act to pry Misato off of his body as she latched onto him like an octopus. Shinji's mind finally started to ask some important questions; much along the lines of, why are they so happy to know that, and why had Asuka kissed him.

X-He can't remain dense forever can he?-X

"Sasami-san I told you, you didn't have to make lunch for me," Shinji said as Sasami dropped a two-foot tall bento on his desk as they sat down for the beginning of class. He wanted to be firm with his fiancé, he didn't want her to feel she needed to go out of her way to help him in anyway. 'She still puts up such a sweet demeanor when I'm sure she hates the idea of being forced to marry me.' His smile as Sasami pushed the box closer to him however counteracted any authority his voice had.

Batting her eyelashes and hoping her blush wasn't to bright, "But Shinji-sama you've been gone for so long, I wanted to do something nice for you." And with Asuka and Rei gone, Rei who had fought kicking and screaming to NOT have to go with Asuka to the volcano wasn't happy, Sasami figured why not score as many points as possible. Seeing the look of appreciation on Shinji's face, Sasami was tempted, and when I say tempted it is implied that had Hikari not called her over, Sasami would have faked a fall and landed in Shinji's lap. However Hikari DID call Sasami over, mainly because the blue haired girl was to close to the returned would-be boyfriend for Hikari's tastes. "I'll be back in a moment ok Shinji-sama?"

Shinji said he wasn't planning on missing anymore school so she didn't have to worry about him leaving. With the female section of the class either talking to one-another or eyeing Shinji up, Touji and Kensuke made their way over to him. Slapping Shinji on the back, Touji smiled and shook his head. "How you going to eat all that food man?" Normally friends would ask how one was doing after a prolonged absence, but Touji's mind came second to his stomach…make that third Touji's libido came first, then his stomach, and his mind was a distant third.

Kensuke either because he was kinder, or because he wanted to make a lot of money off of Shinji's choice in female companionship, asked the correct question. "Dude, where have you been for the last two weeks?" The pool had been acting oddly, through his spy network, the younger students, Kensuke had learned many of the girls had sent love letters to the boy in his shoebox, and had special 'plans' to welcome him back to the student body. Oddly enough though Shinji didn't appear to have any of the letters he was sure he saw put in the box. 'Maybe I need to go check on that…'

Remembering what Misato said to him while she wasn't either crying, hugging him, or drunk, a few limited time, Shinji recapped the story designed to account for his absence. "I had Nerv stuff to do." Misato was proud of that excuse, very proud. Watching Touji drool on his desk as he looked at the lunch box Shinji added, "If you want Touji, you can help me with this at lunch time." Shinji then found himself, well his neck anyway, wrapped in Touji's arm as the boy overcome with joy proceeded to promenade around the room with Shinji as a showing of thanks.

While the two boys made a spectacle of themselves, the third, overcome with the sense of 'wrongness' by the lack of young maidens pouring their hearts into tiny pieces of paper and shoving them in an unknowing boys locker, Kensuke headed to the footlockers to investigate. Not caring what Kensuke did, the three of the five inner Senshi watched and dreamt that it was them in Shinji's arms and not the 'ape boy.' The troupe had been feeling a little down after their near defeat at the hand of the blue-haired oni that had yet to appear again, felt better just watching the hopeful new addition's return.

Makoto cursed silently as she had watched Sasami give Shinji a lunch earlier. "I wonder why he went to Hotaru's and gave her that stuffed tiger," the tallest of the Inner Senshi asked aloud as Usagi and Ami fought over why Usagi shouldn't get to use Ami's study aids for her own benefit. Usagi's defense was 'I'm going to rule the earth so technically don't you have to listen to me?' while Ami just said, 'no.'

All the Senshi had received a frantic call from Haruka earlier that morning requesting more information on the retched male who is corrupting our daughter. And the Senshi were very apt to take up that call for information. More to the point they wanted to get presents from Shinji too. "I mean he's gone for two weeks and then first thing he does is give her a present to replace the pet she lost, how did he even know she had it?"

Ami had been thinking the very same thing, and had thought of a very nice way to get that information and score the prize at the same time. Silencing Usagi by tossing a cookie across the room, upon seeing it Usagi quickly leapt at it, knocked her head against the wall and went to happy land. "I've thought that it was odd as well," Ami said more to take the look of shock off of Makoto's face. "And I have a good plan to learn about it. Mako-chan you're drooling."

Brought back to realty, rather unhappily I might add, Makoto looked at Ami, dapped her face with a napkin and tried not to blush. 'But he was such a good dancer in my dreams…and the post dance was…' at that point Makoto not only blushed but lost a nice deal of blood from her nose. Ami tried not to notice. After a tissue had been applied, rammed up her nostrils to stop the running stanch of blood. "You were saying Ami-chan?"

The oncoming headache from dealing with her overly hormonal friends was bound to be a large one Ami thought. Rubbing her temples to lessen the coming pain, "I was saying. I could offer to tutor him privately to get him up to speed for the time he missed. During which time I ask him about his relationship with Hotaru." Ami finished with a smile and adjusted the glasses that would have been on her face had she been reading. She hadn't been so it appeared she was batting at illusionary mosquitoes. 'And they won't suspect a thing!'

"You're up to something aren't you Ami-chan!" Usagi chirped as she gobbled up the last few crumbs of the cookie. Usagi's amazing recuperative abilities again had left her fellow Senshi speechless. And after a few more moments of quiet, both Usagi and Makoto's vision hardened and gazed evilly at the scamming Mizuno. "You weren't planning on anything else were you Ami-chan?" Usagi's words, usually happy and energetic, took on a sinister and oppressive tone.

Waving her hand up in her defense, Ami denied the whole plan completely. "No, No. A thousand times no! I just want to know what's been happening like you two do!" And like them find a very nice boyfriend and leave the loneliness behind for the rest to deal with. 'I'm tired of being the meek one! I have to be bold and then I'll get to laugh at THEM!"

At the same moment both of her 'friends' shared a simultaneous thought. 'She's too much a coward to make any progress anyway. Let her try and fail and be done with it.' Sticking their hands outward the trio covered all agreed that Ami's plan was the best idea they had to work with, after a very good impression of a football break, the girls signaled the start of the operation and shoved the still unprepared mentally Ami to ask Shinji about an impromptu study session at her house after school.

While Ami blushed, blubbered, and finally asked Shinji, who was worried about his missing school, accepted her offer thankfully and missed the nudge Touji gave him, Kensuke finally got to the shoe lockers. Hiding on the opposite side of Shinji's, Kensuke heard a noise. 'So somebody IS stealing them before Shinji can get them.' He knew something was up with how the more aggressive girls hadn't lured Shinji into ending the betting pool before it reached un-Godly amounts of money. 'I'll just have to see who this is…' Reaching the corner and turning Kensuke was greeted with the sight of floating letters and an odd shimmer. "WHAT THE HELL?" was what he shouted as he tried to cope with the sight.

Caught almost red-handed, Attim dropped the perfumed scented letters of love on the ground and cursed under her breath. 'Do I kill him or what?' Stealing love letters was low, especially for the head of Section-2. But Attim, even though she knew she couldn't be in Shinji's life like she wanted, didn't want him to be used by some harlot for a cheap thrill. At least that's what she told herself, the real reason was she couldn't bear to see him with somebody else. With her life being as short as it was going to be, Attim knew that to see the boy that gave her life meaning, with somebody else would crush her.

Being the geek that he was, Kensuke knew exactly what he was seeing. "Thermoptic camouflage excellent!" Trying his best to make out see through the illusion, Kensuke hoped the user was female, as to use the device correctly the user had to be nude. After a few moments of pointlessly trying to beat technology, Kensuke gave up and realized what was happening. "Why are you stealing Shinji's mail?"

"Searching for anthrax," Attim accidentally blurted out. It was a very stupid excuse, and technically had she not said anything she could have escaped without ever really being detected. 'Damn! Why did I have to go and say that!' she mentally chastised herself. Reaching for her side arm she wondered if she could just kill the boy and get away with it.

Having heard the tone of voice many times before from females regarding Shinji, Kensuke knew the truth. "Guess I'll have to add your name to the pool too. What's your name?" Pulling out a piece of paper and pen, Kensuke set about adding the new female to the large list of potentials. "And if you could answer a few questions I'll even tell you the odds of your success."

'What? How? He knows? He knows my odds too?' Attim's usually determined and focused mind went into a tailspin. How was such a thing possible, for a boy to know the odds of another boy and girl getting together? Though her doubt Attim heard herself answering the boys questions. "Attim M-Zak, Calligraphy, twenty three forms of unarmed combat, flower arrangement, bottom, and no." I'll leave you to think of what questions Kensuke asked, and I hope you do so tastefully or…not if that's how you want to view it.

Factoring all the details into his mobile computer, Kensuke hummed as he looked at the number. "Wow, you're really up their sister!" Attim's score was nearly up their with Rei and Sasami's meaning if she actually tried, Shinji would be butter in her hands. But something didn't seem right, for such a good match and he hadn't seen her before something had to be missing. "So what's the deal?"

Not wanting to talk to a boy who was still trying to see her through her camouflage, let alone about tell him about her shortened lifespan, how Shinji had in their brief contact given her a reason not to let the scientists break her spirit, or how she found his heavy panting very annoying. "I'm not really in the mood to talk about it. Please do not inform," she had to stop as she almost said Shinji, "the Third Child about this operation, none of the pilots needs to know about this." Gathering the letters in her hands, Attim fled from the school, her mind still whirring over the knowledge that she actually was a very good match for Shinji, if the other boy was telling the truth.

X-Geeks with PC's to the rescue…or to the restroom in Kensuke's case-X

"I don't see why I have to be kept under guard, Washu-chan gets to move around now without one!" Ritsuko yelled as her Section-2 appointed service woman poked the doctor lightly with the butt of her gun. Even after she cured Shinji of his feline problem the good doctor wasn't getting many 'good looks' from anybody at Nerv. "And why aren't we at the volcano with the First and Second Child?" Ritsuko asked Misato as her friend and part-time jailor sat down with the boxed lunch Shinji prepared for her.

Savoring the flavor of the smoked fish and rice, Misato let Ritsuko's constant babbling serve as dinner music. She'd gotten the call from a panicking Shigeru not twenty minutes ago that the operation to capture the angel had failed when Asuka saw that it was weak. Apparently Asuka dove into the volcano, without her Eva you understand, swam to the angel, ate it, and grew a very impressive set of black leathery bat wings. The demoness promptly stated she needed to eat more angels and get even MORE power as she willed the wings to retract into her back. 'Wonder if that bath was hot enough for her,' Misato wondered suppressing a giggle that tempted to rise from her mouth.

Shion however was watching both Misato and Ritsuko coldly. "You can't be trusted not to screw over the lives of everybody you come into contact with Akagi." Shion wasn't taking her content refusals to have Shinji relinquished to her care well. And with Kos-Mos slaving away making something she called Kotoko to supplement Sumomo, the odd pink nightmare, Shion had to fight for her hopeful husband alone. "And Katsuragi why are you smiling like you're on some type of drug?"

Misato, who did have a very dopey grin on her face, turned to Shion and waved her off. "I'm just in a good mood. Got a good lunch here, get off in a few hours, and with Asuka and Rei staying at that inn for the night we got the apartment to ourselves!" Misato couldn't wait to get home. 'Sure paying that Hinata place to lodge a demon and a part angel will cost a bit, but it'll be worth it!' Lounging back into her chair, Misato missed the seething jealousy and hatred beaming out of Shion at unparalleled levels. Before Shion could implant her metal thermos into the back of Misato's neck, the phone rang and disturbed the 'happy co-workers'

"Hello, who is it?" Ritsuko answered holding the phone lightly to her head. Her new position as receptionist didn't fill her with joy, nor did the stipulation that if she did a bad job of answering the phone she'd not be allowed back in her lab. Hearing a male voice on the phone, Ritsuko instantly knew it was for Misato, and was actually right. "Misato, friend from college on the phone, I'm sure its about some fling you had or something. Honestly did you ever leave you bedroom in co…" Ritsuko's face at that moment in time, chose to be forcibly connected to Misato's fist, and then the good doctor found the floor to be a nice play to lay down and think about what she had said.

"Katsuragi speaking…Keiichi? Its been so long how you been?" Misato's voice, to Shion, was oddly happy to hear from a man on the phone, but it was more like she was talking to family and not a loved on. "So is Urd still writing stories about how you and Belldandy met?" Misato didn't believe the stories about Keiichi's girlfriend and family being goddesses; such things couldn't be real, could they? "What…you ARE! Its about time you two got married…you need what…really? I know a few girls that could be in the wedding ceremony…I…well yes I do know a guy that age…I…you…Bell said that?…She'd really…wow she's taking this seriously…Fine I'll ask Shinji to be in the wedding too. Talk to you later Morisato-kun."

"Old boyfriend finally give up on you and getting married?" Shion asked actually interested now in what the phone conversation was about. Not everyday one hears half of a conversation when the person you're listening to is nearly panicking. 'She really didn't want Shinji-kun in the ceremony it seems.'

Looking at the receiver, Misato wanted to cry for multiple reasons. In her stay at college her path was interlaced with a young mechanic named Keiichi Morisato. Misato's bike broke down and the young man fixed it for her for free, always a plus in Misato's book. They got to talking and hit it off as friends, when Misato meet Keiichi's girlfriend, one overly passive and polite, Belldandy well the friendship with the young Bell was instantaneous, as always, and Misato visited the man's home, and old Buddhist temple, on many occasions.

She wanted to cry because of how happy she was that those two love struck fools finally got over their fears and were about to take the plunge, the other reason was they needed bodies to fill out the wedding roster. Belldandy insisted on a western style wedding and that meant people were needed, lots of people. While the female side was relatively full, they needed men. And Misato DID NOT want Shinji to be around a group of girls on an emotional high hoping to find a husband of their own. Shinji was HERS and she didn't want any other girls getting ideas about him. "If you must know Uzuki, a dear friend is getting married soon, and well…a lot of us are now in the wedding party."

Shion grabbed a nearby wrench, and while Misato picked up the phone to inform Shinji, who should have been home from school by now about the developments, Shion gave Misato a time out for speaking for others. "Damn it! I went and chipped my best wrench…you're going to have to pay for this!" Shion said as she rolled Misato over to Ritsuko's body, did some posing, and took a few snap shots. When the two women awoke later that night, both asked the other a simple question. 'Did we get drunk again?'

X-So Misato and Ritsuko occasionally wake up that way, nothing's implied is however-X

With backpack in tow, Shinji stared up at the luxury apartment complex Ami's directions lead him too. To say he was intimidated is to say the moon is far away, to say he was nervous is to say Kos-Mos was kinda strong. 'Maybe I should go home and study on my own,' Shinji thought as his finger started to draw away from the call button on the outer apartment door. "I'm sure I'd just be a bother to Mizuno-san anyway," Shinji said to himself as he started to back away from the door, and into a soda bottle. Nearly losing his balance, he stumbled forward and mashed his palm against the button he had so not wanted to push. 'Shit.'

Within seconds a voice, a hesitant and nervous one, came over the intercom, "Shinji-san is that you? I'll buzz you in." Ami wasn't doing much better than Shinji in the mental department. Sure she had been pushed into inviting him over, she did want to get to know him better, and it would be the nice thing to do in helping him to catch up with his studies, but…and this is a big but mind you, whenever she looked him in the eyes her stomach fluttered, her mouth went dry and she fumbled over what to say. And for Ami not being able to think straight is a very bad place to be.

Pressing the security button to let Shinji into the complex, Ami took a few moments to calm herself. Taking deep breaths, Ami continued to repeat in her mind, 'I'm just going to talk to him, just talk. Nothing is going to happen because you don't have the luck, beauty, or charm to make it happen.' And her mother was home and that really made it hard to lay some serious smack down on any would-be boyfriends. "Mom, my friends coming up to study, can we use the living room?"

Kurumi Mizuno, and if you say that's not her real name I'm going to laugh at you anyway, stuck her head out of her office door. "One of those girls using you for a human study aid again Ami-chan?" Kurumi wasn't your typical doctor, not since her husband divorced her to wander Europe to study on how to be a degenerate. Sure he said it was to learn art but she knew better. Kurumi was more Ami's age in mind than Ami was. 'When is that girl going to bring home a boy…maybe she's a lesbian, if so its from her fathers side of the family.'

Pushing her mother's head back into the office, "No mother, this time it's a boy. He's been absent lately and I want to help him get caught up." Ami hated the issue of boys when talking to her mother, it always ended poorly for her. Kurumi, much as Ami predicted, sported a very evil grin on her face and leaned over to her daughter's now blushing face.

"You don't have feelings for his boy do you Ami-chan, want mother to give you a few hints?" Ami was way to slow paced for Kurumi's taste. 'In the modern world you have to take what you want or somebody else will take it from you!' Much like her ex-husband had taken a lot of her money, jewelry, and stocks as a parting gift before he gave her the letter saying 'Bye.' Sneaking a look around for any potential intruders who just wanted information, and making Ami wonder about her mother's sanity, Kurumi leaned close to her daughter. "But I keep telling you, I know this great boy that I keep seeing at the hospital, you might have to share him with me, but he's cute, caring, modest if what Kyoshi tells me is true, and seems to be the right size where it counts."

"MOTHER STOP!" it was the umpteenth time her mother had mentioned this mystery boy to her and all that came with him. Ami could understand that her mother had certain, needs, as a way of putting it, but such things weren't blood related, she hoped. "I'm just going to tutor him a little, and I'd appreciate if you'd stay in your office while I do. I don't want you embarrassing him."

"Sure Ami-chan, sure. You just don't want to me to see you all kissy faced with him do you." Kurumi punctuated her remark by puckering her lips and kissing the air a few times. 'I'll just have to see what makes this boy so special that my sexually anorexic daughter is willing to bring him over. Taking the hands on her head, the forcing of her body far into the office, and the slamming of the door as keys that something was indeed up. "This is going to be fun."

Racing to the door, which a light rapping was emanating from, Ami took one last deep breath before opening it. "Shinji-san, welcome. Come in and I'll make you comfortable…and you sit at the tea…I mean…you make the tea and I'll get comfortable…oh!" Ami blubbered as she tried to calm herself down enough to speak, but just looking at Shinji made her heart flutter and her mind cease functioning.

Knowing exactly how Ami felt, he wasn't invited to girls' homes very often, actually he was never invited personally before, Shinji tried to smile past Ami's remarks. "Some tea would be lovely Mizuno-san." Following the blushing Senshi of water to her living room, Shinji took a seat on one of the couches while Ami went to prepare some tea. "You're apartment is so big Mizuno-san, much larger than my own."

Thankful that the kitchen didn't have a direct view to the living room, Ami was able to calm down and collect her thoughts. Brewing the tea quickly, "Shinji-san, didn't I tell you to call me Ami? And yes this is a very nice place. My mother insisted we live here." Why Ami didn't know, but loved the large spacious room she was given. 'Please mother stay in your office, please mother, please!' The whistle of the teakettle whistled and Ami gathered it and two cups before rejoining Shinji on the couch.

As Ami's weight added to the cushion, Shinji felt his body sliding down further towards the lovely young woman. Nestled cozily between the two cushions, both Ami and Shinji sat with their legs pressed rather kindly together. "Am…Ami-san are you sure I'm not being a bother with having you help me?" Shinji would have done anything at that moment to be able to move without it seeming rude or offensive. 'I'm…touching her…her! This nice, police, smart, and attractive woman…how can she stand it?'

Ami's mind was in the exact same space. 'OH MY GOD I'm almost on top of him!' Using all her will power, Ami forced her face and body to do her bidding, and that was to not call attention to the contact at all. Cause if she acknowledged it's existence, Shinji would most likely pull away and his slight tough was electric. "Where shall we start Shinji-san? We have a lot of ground to cover." Ami's voice, full of confidence and power won over Shinji's own nervous tension and the two quickly dove into the study session. Ami was a tough instructor but fair, she didn't go to quickly for Shinji to grasp nor to slow and leave him bored.

As the session grew to a close and the pale moonlight filtered in from the outdoor patio, Shinji relaxed into the couch and smiled. "Ami-san your amazing…your so good at teaching, smart, and cu…" Slamming his hand over his mouth Shinji almost spilled the beans in the heat of the moment. Ami just looked at him quizzically and tilted her head slightly giving Shinji's opinion of the blue haired girls cuteness even more credence.

Ami asked him what he had said last but somebody else answered for her. "Ami-chan, he said you were cute. Isn't that right Shinji-kun?" Kurumi said as she leaned over Shinji's shoulder, lettering her longer hair fall onto him. Her words seemed to sizzle softly in Shinji's ears as the hot breath from her lips careened into them. Kurumi's smile widened as the boy shuddered a little from her attempt to 'entice' him. 'Who would have know Ami had already meet him…but seeing how polite he is with my daughter I doubt she'd be bold enough to make the steps needed. Oh well…more room for me.'

"Mother…you know Shinji-san?" Ami was more surprised that her mother had a preexisting relationship with her more than budding crush now than with her presence in the room. Ami's mind was also trying to absorb the compliments the boy had given her. She wanted nothing more than to have the moment back but without her mother in the room. 'He'd say he found be attractive and take me in his arms and kiss me tenderly, I'd whisper that I loved him for so long and…and…'

"Ami-chan no fantasizing in front of guests now, didn't I teach you better than that?" Looking at Shinji, Kurumi took his hand and sat next to him, leaving him flanked on each side by a Muzino. "Now Shinji-kun is a patient of mine at Nerv-Medical." Still holding Shinji's hand, Kurumi could feel his pulse quickening through his wrist, as she held it delicately. "So good of you to visit, has Ami-chan finished helping you?"

The blood thundered in Shinji's ears as the very attractive mother of Ami announced she was his doctor. 'Why is she holding my hand like that…and…talking like that?' Kurumi was laying on maximum seduction factor even before her own daughter. Shinji was having a hard time thinking straight, in his mind he owed this woman so very much, his life even. "Yes Mizuno-san, Ami and I just finished catching up on my work."

Letting go of Shinji's hand, Kurumi brought her own together and smiled brightly at him. "Excellent, you see I need some help in my bedroom. My mattress has been giving me a lot of trouble and I need a man's help to fix it. Would you be a dear and help?" As Ami stared horrified at her mother as she took Shinji's hand and started leading him to her bedroom.

Standing up and pulling her mother's hand away from Shinji's. "Mother! I think…if you need help…I will help you…ok?" Kurumi wondered briefly if Ami was sick. Her hand was so cold, like ice. Looking into Ami's eyes, Kurumi felt light headed and chilled. "One second Shinji-san, I'm going to 'help' my mother with her mattress." Walking the remaining distance into her mother's bedroom Ami called upon her Senshi powers and lowered Kurumi's body temperature to the point the woman fainted. But upon entering the living room again, Shinji had vanished and left a note behind.

With his body reacting so horridly to both the lovely Muzino women, Shinji felt compelled to flee before he did something to wrong either woman. His note simple stated that he was thrilled that such a caring and wonderful person had been willing to help him, and he hoped he could repay her sometime for it. She just need ask and he'd do his best. Ami read the note, re-read it, and sank to her knees on the ground. 'I failed to learn about his relationship with Hotaru…but this note means I can get a date! A date with Shinji-san! And he thinks I'm wonderful!' Drawing the small torn off piece of paper to her lips, Ami kissed the signature on the bottom and started to think of where she should ask Shinji to talk her. 'Someplace romantic.'

X-And another Senshi is lost to Shinji's polite charm!-X

Chapter over! Yes that's right no real cliff hanger, just good old fashion fluff and funny. Hope you liked this chapter and I hope you continue to support this story.

Happy 4th of July too…and I'll get the omake updated soon but I wanted this to be out before the end of the day on the forth so check back for the battle lines.!

And just to make things clear…the permanent cast is set, any other characters that come onto the field are only temporary. The O!MG cast will not…repeat will not be permanent features of the story. Most likely two possible three chapters for the story arc and then they gone so don't worry about 'adding more characters'

Ja Mata

Zentrodie (zentrodie-at-secondimpact-dot-com)

Omake!

Updated Battle lines!

Those siding with Kos-Mos: Xeo, Konos the Grey, ScienceMonkey, Nicknack, DarkChuchuo, Sybian Machine, Final Max, Crrot, Sol bandus, Pandomine, Vaurnut, NickNack, Soulless, Sleepy Kitty, Deus, renzokuken-sama, James Ray Edwards, KevinEc, Alpha Draconis1, a fan3, Science Monkey, Darklion74, Serpent Spy, Soulless, Jin Kazemeijin, Kyubi, CheeseKing, Typhon, "The Man in the Pallid Mask," Cyber Angel One, Sideris, Anomaly27, Slayer6, SickToTheGore, Tempest Destiny, Le Bete Noir, Urtv 17, Ordinary Joe, Sideris, Absu7, B52, SilentAssasinMecha, Hokage-Sama, Drakandrin, Tonberry, URTV-666, U-DO, Wings of Lead, l33t0n3, Obsessed Uber Rei, Imaginary404, KinZoku, Renzokuken-sama, rongten, Alexander-K, planket shrimp, Saint Jack, Virtigo900, Ghost140, Education, Gkatheller, Duo, Genisyn69, Corruption, Momo, MasterBlaster Total: 66

Those wanting a Harem: deinku, VCR, Jon Cook (w/o Asuka), mc2rpg, Positron(for now), Hank, Finalfantasyxii, chan,ken, kins of Ireland, Mordamir, Kman, Valtiel, Epsilon, ShadowCascade, EchoGarrote, Vic, Frank the Bunny (Don't chain me up!), NateGold, Gord, Slake-Sama, Zemzaba, TheWickerMan, Dark Anomaly, Bobby, (Unknown mass), Masumune, Variable Creatue, Tyson, Drake Smith, Rusty Knight, Bonta-Kun ,Production, Messiah3, WingOmega, DarkStarlkerFan (and wait), Crono10, Aladeth, Vic, Idiot564, ChronoTravel, Blood of Odin, Kman,Razial the Damned, Warden, Zang-Sama, Jizzle the uncontrollable Jazzle, NefCanuck, ChronoTravel, Andrew Joshua, JWM Talon, Dwing, Tracker, Combat, DWD, North freezing(and don't count Attim out!), Ttestagr, Migele , Shiro, Kyoshin, Soul Stealer, Exocite, Kd8gun,Secaid, Lord Anime, The Gate Keeper, Wind Omega, GrandMoffPooky, Jace Total: 66

Those siding with Rei: Otaku-Dman, Vibious, SoulFire, Macavity the Mystery Cat, Dark Machine, Philg, NickNack, Azurewind, Redmage2k, Rei-aka-Ayanami-chan, jennyjennie, rgreat, Katfum, Oni-Otaku, wiseman, Crimson Arrow, Player0, GoldmonX, Mak, Pert-kun, The Mad Shoe, Mattman65, Herder of cats, DeathScyth, Seraphy, TheCrawlingChaos, Lord Amon, Vertigo900, Ronn, Asanohoshi, Ayanami-Lover, Fanfic-addict Total: 32

Those siding with Asuka: Kusinagi, Nova10, Vibious, Final Max, Kuracao, Redshadow64, xXx, Supereva0102, Asuka-fan, SOMEBODY, Supereva01, Knighsshadow, WarpWizard, Dude, Dragon's death, Uniden, A/S Fan X 2, Edhunne, Old Foo, Deathaanimefan32l, Sledge, Soul Eva, KoalaKiller, GodSpeed Total: 25

Those siding with Hotaru Tomoe: Doomed One, Dchimera, Ze Black Knight, Hotaru, Golden Kitsune, Keimythe Tiger Total: 7

Those siding with Blue haired girlsOrganized Kaos, Trikster , Kima Prideflame, Nick McC, Shinzaku, M.E.S.S, Total: 7

Those siding with Sasami: Doggystyle, razzor15, Vaurnut, Omrianh, Faoron Total: 5

Those siding with Mana: Steve Vader, Chewy, Total: 3

Those siding with Yui Ikari: Education,Player 0 total: 2

Those siding with Shion Uzuki: Remenants, Final Max Total : 2

Those siding with Misato: Kippenberger, JVR Total: 2

Those siding with Hikari: Amathyst Wind Total: 1

Those siding with Aisha Clan Clan: Bloody Angel X Total: 1

Those siding with Chiyo: Biting Cat Total: 1

Those wanting me to burn in fiery hell and never update this story again: Lord Inari Total: 1

And the battle lines are continuing with their march! Kos-Mos and Harem continue to via for superiority while the blue haired half angel creeps steadily closer to them, leaving her demonic companion in the dust! But what is this…is Hotaru gaining in speed and intensity of followers? Is the meek and bashful Senshi of utter death and destruction waiting in the wings to kill not one, not two…but all comers?

All is possible from your votes! And as a new addition to the voting…you can not help determine Rei's manga of choice…a few of Rei's supporters have offered their Warlord opinions on how to chain favor through better reading.

Its up to you! Vote! Be heard! Wave your chibi banners high and crush your opponents!

And again just to calm those worried that another large inclusion to the cast is coming, no need to fret, the only way any more additional characters will make it into permanent status is they need five votes or more. So unless the wedding arc gets a lot of support for one character they'll just be used for the idea Golden and I have and then…well think of Shampoo and the Trigun girls.

Omake 2! Yes that's right Omake number 2!

He was mad, he was furious he was walking right at me. "How much longer do I have to wait to give my Shinji some kindness, love and affection?" Kaworu Nagisa said as he slid his hands into his pockets and smiled.

"Please don't do that…creeps me out." Kami-sama of universe-X said. Sitting at his keyboard and planning how to make a good next couple of events on his creation. His mind wandered to the planned Shinji Vs. Tokyo-3 four part arc.

Kaworu not to be daunted walked up to Kami and smacked him on the back of the head, but it was all in good fun wasn't it? "But at the rate you're going how much longer do I have to wait?" Watching Shinji steadily growing in his knowledge that he was a loser yes, but a loser that had a positive affect on many woman who seemed to really like him, made him nervous. 'I want him to be mine…but if those women get to him I'll have to hope for bi-sexual!'

Kami-sama of Universe-X thought about Kaworu's request. "Um…maybe a year…my time?" As time pasted differently in the two dimensions he figured it was best to be specific. "If I don't start working on any new dimensions or any of my others."

Taking the keyboard from Kami-sama of Universe-X's hands, Kaworu decided to try and enlighten the lazy, slacking, unattractive, and bad smelling Kami that maybe he should hurry up. Some time later Kami-sama of universe-X woke up and found his keyboard in many pieces and his face hurt like hell… "Maybe I'll introduce him a little earlier?"

-FAT CHANCE he comes on schedule!-


	18. Shion doesn't get out much

Standard Disclaimer

Yeah yeah I know late updates and such, I apologize a lot don't I? Well I have no real excuse save I was at a hometown festival last weekend and didn't have time to write. Glad you all still like this oddity know as a story and I hope you continue to enjoy it.

That's it…odd how I didn't drawl it out isn't it.

X-I usually whine a bit more-X

What We Make of It

Chapter 18

It's about time

-or-

No really it is about time

Her neck was aching, her back in pain, and her head was pounding but Shion couldn't stop. She had to hack the Magi and alter Gendo's plans to move Shinji in with some family named Sakuraba. 'Who the hell has a name like that in today's society anyway?' Shion thought as she continued battling firewalls and encryption blocks with only Misato and Ritsuko's snoring to keep her company. 'Wonder how long I've been at this…or how long those two will sleep.'

A sudden swish of air signaled the automatic doors opening and the light tapping of shoes momentarily diverted the young Uzuki's attention. "If this is about Kos-Mos's bills I told you I'm not her owner anymore so stop asking me." Really how was she supposed to pay for the rebuilding of ninety-five percent of animal hospitals and shelters in the whole of the Tokyo-3 area anyway, 'I'm not made of money and I have better things to do.' Waving her hand at the transgressor Shion hoped they'd get the hint and leave her alone so she could finish freeing her soon-to-be husband.

"Uzuki-san," Shinji timidly called out, now nervous about offending the cute scientist, "Have you seen Misato-san, she didn't come home last night." Creeping closer to the door in case his presence really did offend the seemingly busy woman, Shinji wanted a clear run at the exit. The darkness in the room, illuminated only by Shion's computer screen highlighting the woman's disheveled hair and wrinkled dirty brown vest, Shinji couldn't help but notice that was only half buttoned and a white undergarment peaking out from underneath.

'Shinji-kun! Shinji's here and I just…oops.' Shion's breath caught in her throat as the realization struck and her chest lurched. Turning away from the screen, her hair flaying outward in wayward directions, Shion's eyes feel easily onto the boy's smaller frame, a sight she was only seldom given, but cherished. "Oh Shinji, I didn't know it was you. Katsuragi and Akagi-kun had to work late last night," she pointed to the fold out cots where Misato and Ritsuko ended up sleeping after waking from the blunt trauma their skulls received the day before. It was easier to go back to sleep than try thinking of how they woke up in each other's arms anyway.

A warm smile crossed Shinji's lips as he saw his guarding sleeping with her thumb in her mouth. 'I wonder how old she really is,' he mused happily as he turned back to Shion who had in his moment of distraction come right up to him and taken his hands in hers. "Uzuki-san, is something wrong you seem really tired. They didn't take your sleeping place did they?" Shinji's voice full of concern and worry, he'd hated knowing that somebody had to suffer because of somebody else.

Shion shook off the question, "No, just had a lot of work to do, I'm trying to help you with that whole move the commander is forcing on you." Shion was never averse to telling a modified version of the truth, it wasn't a lie if you didn't tell all the facts, well that and you have a skewed ethics that allow for it, Shion did so lets not think poorly of her for it. Squeezing the surprisingly strong feeling hands of the young man, Shion's dopey smile couldn't have been removed even with plastic surgery. "Its sweet of you to worry about me, I'll be sure to tell Katsuragi that you stopped by when she wakes up, ok?" Shion knew bloody well that Misato would never know that Shinji came to check on her, she wasn't going to tell.

Giving both the doctor and his guardian one last look, Shinji nodded, he had a lot of cleaning to do before Asuka came home and he had supper to cook for Sasami and Rei. The chores of a slave are never finished. "Thank you Uzuki-san," on a spur of the moment feeling, "If you'd like you could come home with her, I'll make supper if you'd like some." Now Shinji couldn't be sure, but the moment he finished speaking, Shion's face seemed to turn crimson and her eyes to fog over. "Uzuki-san?"

With the sudden zeal to get Shinji's new home to be far away from Tokyo-3, and hers as well, that and have soundproof walls installed, Shion said she'd love to come over for diner and shoved the boy out sating a lot of work to do, and helping herself to a nice feel of his backside as she pushed him out. The door swished shut again and Shion leaned her back heavily against her, her hand to her chest. Looking up at the ceiling, Shion could still feel the texture of Shinji's jeans on her fingertips. Pressing her head against the door, she closed her eyes and sighed contently. 'He asked me to dinner,' her hand could feel the beating of her heart like a drum. 'If I feel like this just over dinner what will I feel like when…' her mind trailed off and her knees weakened and she slid down the door to the floor still smiling contently and hoping for the day where her affections would be returned in earnest.

Back in reality, and not fantasyland where Shion was now joining the populous of many other female suitors, Shinji felt good about his choice. 'Uzuki-san always seems so busy and she's been helping me with Kos-Mos so much I feel I need to repay her kindness.' It felt great to help people, and with a bit more confidence in his step Shinji actually allowed himself to keep his smile. He couldn't tell when it happened, or even why, but he'd been feeling better about himself a lot more lately. Sure he felt upset for having bad thoughts about Ami-san and her mother from the night before, but he wasn't feeling as horrid about himself. That was until he rounded one of the many corners of the sprawling Nerv complex and smashed into what felt like a pillar of steel, and sent him fumbling to the ground.

The tiny bump against her chest broke Attim from her internal debate on whether to kill Kensuke or tap him for more information. What she saw nearly gave her a heart attack. She had run into the one person she vowed never to show herself to, the one person she had devoted her life to protecting from the shadows. She didn't know what to do, should she run away, help him up, just walk past him like it didn't happen, or any number of other escape maneuvers. Rubbing his head with his free hand, Shinji sheepishly looked up at what he now knew wasn't a girder but a very well endowed and even he had to admit gorgeous woman. "I'm sorry Miss, I wasn't looking where I was going," he eeped out while averting his eyes from the woman.

Compelled but an unseen force, that would be me if you don't know, Attim extended her hand and pulled the Third Child to his feet, noting he still averted his eyes and a healthy blush adorned his cheeks. "It is alright, I wasn't looking myself," how hard it was for her to say such simple and emotionless words. He was just as she remembered, kind, polite, skittish, and she knew that the boy Kensuke would be seeing more of her as she needed to know more about him, and see him more. Sure she saw him a lot, more than anybody else in reality. But it wasn't really seeing him, it was distorted by camera lenses, video feed, and report summaries, never like this, never face to face. "Are…you hurt?" she hated the weakness in her voice, the weakness in her that prevented her from truly trying to stay out of his life.

Reluctantly meeting Attim's gaze, and marveling at the red accents around her eyes, and the emerald orbs their in, Shinji was reminded momentarily of two things. One was his nurse who also had the same captivating colored eyes, and two of a small girl who he had failed to protect, a girl that Ritsuko said was living a better life someplace in another country but couldn't be contacted. The pain of failing to protect one so small and helpless, in his eyes, never truly left him, just lied buried amid a sea of other failings and shortcomings and quickly killed his good mood. "I'm fine Miss…?" he drawled out hoping to know the name of the woman he offended.

Attim caught the change in his tone easily, she'd studied his mannerisms and profile constantly, it was her duty. 'He is sad, something about seeing me has made him sad…could he…is it possible that he…' No, how could it be possible that he could see something in her that reminded him of her previous self she was so different now. "M-Zak, and if you are fine I will leave you, I have things to do." Attim cursed again her birth, all she had to do was say 'Attim' and part of her knew Shinji would know, be freed of some guilt or sadness that surely dwelt in him, but it wouldn't last. 'I'd die and he'd be in more pain…' But even as she thought that and gave Shinji's retreating form on last look the tears started to brim in her eyes, why was fate cruel? Why was it necessary for her to have been giving such a life, she couldn't know the answer to that, but somebody was watching her, smiling as her long red hair waved and her own ward set down her lunch for her. Washu knew all about Attim, and soon the young woman would have nothing to fear.

X-Yes Washu knows a lot, didn't we all know that?-X

"You've been really quiet for the last two days Ami-chan, something you want to tell us?" Usagi asked in between licks to her ice cream cone. Ami, still in her school outfit just sank further into her seated position on the patio of the Hino shrine. The full assembly of Inner Senshi, and Hotaru at Ami's request sat eating chilled treats in the noonday sun.

Ami had called the group together, plus Hotaru, to get the young girl to answer the question of her relation to Shinji, not the other way around. But all of the Inner's now knew of Ami's study session. "Usagi-chan, this isn't why I called us here today and you know it." How was Ami supposed to tell them about what really happened that night two days ago?

Minako just smiled knowing that Ami couldn't have succeeded if she had she wouldn't be oozing the depression she was. "Ah Usagi-chan, I think Ami here is trying to hide something from us, did you get all nervous on us Ami-chan," Minako cooed then burst into a fit of laughter as Ami's face flushed red and a knot of anger appeared on her forehead. "Usagi-chan?"

Rei just pointed at Usagi who was now chasing Luna who had the last bag of cookies firmly in her jaws. "I don't think she's listening, but we are Ami-chan, lets talk about this first then we can," Rei glanced over at the fidgeting Sailor Saturn, "get to the more important business ok?" The whole group was about to agree to that when Usagi rushed through the group still chasing the grinning feline. Luna, in a show of tact ran into the exposed underground beneath the temple, Usagi following unhindered hadn't counted on the ledge and proceeded to splinter the wood with her head. Luna, and the rest of the Senshi just laughed knowing Usagi's head wasn't really a weak spot, no Usagi's only real weakness was in her chest, and for you perverts out there I'm actually talking about her heart. After the laughter subsided, Rei turned back to Ami who was slowly inching away, sensing her intent, "GET HER!"

The following five minutes consisted of Sailor Mercury running for her life as her friends hunted her down like a rabid animal. Attacks were made, people thrown, and in the end, Makoto's strength won out and Ami was pulled back flailing her limbs wildly in an attempt to break the hold she was in, she failed much as we all knew she would. Holding her from behind, her arms wrapped tightly around Ami's stomach, Makoto grinned, "Now Ami, are you going to talk or…do I give you a nice squeeze?

Feeling Makoto flexing her arms slightly, Ami gave up. "Fine…fine…I'll talk, just don't hug me Mako-chan, put me down." Ami hated being the weakest Senshi, but she would have the last laugh, she was going to go on a date with Shinji, and using her mind, 'something those amazons don't have!' she would win over them. "What do you want me to tell you?" Ami asked trying to keep some semblance of dignity, the ice cream stain on her bow stealing any hope for it though, vanilla stains aren't the best things.

Not listening to Hotaru who asked if somebody should help Usagi who was speaking in tongues, Minato sat next to Ami. "What happened at your house the other day. We all know you took him to your house and since we haven't had school since we don't know how HE is, but we know YOU are depressed." That bolded well for the other Senshi, if Ami was sad it had to mean she had failed and they still had a chance.

"Well…about that…" Ami tried staling and gave the stairway one last look before Makoto flexed again reminded Ami that she was a prisoner. "My mother…made more progress with him than I did." Hanging her head in shame, Ami vowed to study harder in the arts of attracting men and gaining their favor, the other Senshi just burst into laughter so hard that tears erupted from their eyes. They knew Ami was bad with men, but to lose to her mother was just pathetic. Ami stood and glared at all of them, "Why is that so funny! Mako-chan you knocked yourself unconscious, and Rei-chan, you…you blanked out! How am I worse than you two?"

Having fallen on her behind while laughing at her friend, Minako waved her hand in front of her face. "Its not that its worse, its just…well pathetic! Ami-chan your mother…I mean how could you let your mom…" then Minako just fell back into her laughing fit and couldn't be broken from it for the next ten minutes, leaving a very angry Sailor Mercury. No to the other Senshi, Ami wasn't even considered a contender now her mother had replaced her.

Breaking the death glare off Ami's face, and the hysterics of the other conscious warriors of Justice, Hotaru spoke. "Why did you need me here if you're just talking about some boy Ami-chan had over at her home?" Hotaru had no clue why she was called, save that Ami insisted she be at the shrine for a very important meeting. She'd been spending the last week reviewing facts. One her beloved pet was gone, seemingly forever, two a nice boy she had never seen before gave her a plush toy in memory, and third the boy's eyes were identical to her lost pets, and somehow that seemed important.

Wiping the last stray tears from her eyes, Rei turned to Hotaru. "Ah, Hotaru-chan, we just have to ask you how you know Shinji Ikari. He was missing for two weeks a while back and the first thing he did upon return was give you that stuffed tiger. Do you know why?" A few stray giggles were intermixed with her dialog as Rei still couldn't get the idea of Ami's mother hitting on Shinji while her own daughter couldn't so much as speak.

'So he was missing during the time I had Tiger Cub-san…is it…is it possible?' Hotaru thought as more pieces to the puzzle fell into place. Luna had turned into a human for a short period so wasn't it at least feasible for a human to turn into a cat, 'It would have explained the pained look on his face when I saw him…and how he knew!' Realization so profound fell over Hotaru's thoughts that she stared blankly for a few minutes. The other Senshi, sans Usagi, were starting to grow concerned until Hotaru regained control of her senses. "I…haven't meet him until he delivered the toy, I'm sorry." No reason getting them worried about her, they'd surely be upset with the boy if they knew he had seen her and all of them naked. Oh how little Hotaru really knew.

But Hotaru wasn't completely sure, I mean just assuming a boy was a tiger is hard to do, but it seemed to make an odd sort of sense. 'I'll talk to him at school the next chance I get,' Hotaru thought, a burning suddenly filling her heart. All her newfound confidence, her new friends, and all the happiness she had from her departed pet was all due to this boy Shinji? If it were true, Hotaru's heart skipped a beat at the thought that she could once again be with her beloved pet, only in a different form, and a new type of relationship. Her thoughts changed to a different matter as she noticed the other Inner Senshi gathering around Usagi. It was practical joke time, and Usagi was always a ripe target for it.

Waking several hours later, Usagi wondered why her face felt weird, it was all the face paint, why her cloths felt odd, they had put on sizes way to small for her to give the illusion of girth, and she wondered what smelt like fish, don't ask.

X-Fun with the Senshi, always a good thing in my opinion-X

"I don't see why we have to be part of your old college bedmates wedding," Asuka said from her place in Shinji's lap. One arm draped around his neck, the other possessively to his chest. Shinji had protested at first, but Asuka's cooing in his ear that it was all part of the Master/Vassal relationship calmed his doubt, but made him again think about his relationship to the hellion. "If you had asked us maybe I'd have consented but you just said I would, I won't be ordered by humans!"

Grabbing Asuka by the back of her cape and pulling hard, Sasami dragged the demoness off of her fiancé. "Asuka-san that is hardly acceptable behavior! Leave Shinji-sama alone!" Her voice a dead ringer for her elder sister Ayeka. Taking her seat next to Shinji, Sasami turned to Misato who was now draining her forth beer and praying that Third Impact would occur but spare her and Shinji. "Why didn't you ask us about this, it was rude of you."

Blushing softly as Sasami took his hand in hers and rubbed her thumb over it, Shinji gushed out his opinion. "I have no problem with it. Misato-san has done so much for me," what Shinji didn't know was that Misato was still posting pictures of him on the internet to a now massive horde of women, and making millions, "and I think we should do something to help her." Memories of the last encounter with Misato flashed in his mind, as again he found the dark haired captain diving over the table and hugging him.

"I knew I could count on you Shinji-kun!" Misato wailed as she clutched him harder and 'accidentally' knocked Sasami out of her seat and onto the floor. Both the soon to be Goddess, and princess off Hell wanted to refute her, but if Shinji wanted to do it, they'd have to contradict him to get their way, and they didn't want to spoil his mood, he was in dower spirits after his return from his meeting with Attim the previous day. Releasing her strangle hold on Shinji, who was now a lovely shade of blue due to the asphyxiation, "The practice is tomorrow, Belldandy already sent over the attire needed, with a meal afterwards, and the real wedding is the day after."

Pulling Shinji out of Misato's death grip, Asuka just scoffed as she dragged the boy out of the room. "Why do I have to do such a stupid thing…hah, I'll just have to have fun at the wedding, won't that be nice…Shinji?" It felt nice, right, to call him by his name. Sure he was her vassal, but she didn't like to demean him with the title. "We're going to bed, Wondergirl's presence drained me a bit, so I need to recharge." Looking down at Shinji and licking her chops, "And I know the best way."

Having not seen Rei in awhile, Sasami pulled on one of her pigtails lightly, "Asuka-san, what do you mean, has Rei-san been acting strange again?" Both Misato and Sasami knew not to worry to much about Asuka taking Shinji to his room, Kos-Mos was adamant that nothing would happen, Sumomo was left in overprotective mode. But it still left a large swell of jealousy in them to see them heading to any private location. 'Damn you Washu! Why won't you let me stay here with him, I may lose him if this keeps up or let me wake Aisha to keep her away from him.'

Misato wasn't worried because she set up the video camera in the room and watched it like a hawk while those two were alone. 'I don't know how Asuka got through to him, but she seems a step ahead of us…all she did was kiss his cheek.' But Misato could also sense something changing in Shinji, and it filled her with rapt anticipation, when it was fully manifest, Misato was sure she'd love the change. "You didn't try to kill and eat her did you, we do need you three as pilots still!" Asuka's eating of all the angel samples had been creepy, but nobody could stop the demon when she saw something she wanted.

"Go warm up the bed for me vassal," Asuka whispered huskily in Shinji's ear, giving him a light head, and a sad feeling knowing Asuka was picking on him. "I have to inform these meat bags about our fellow 'pilot.' Sure Asuka had never had a single test, or solo sortie in her Eva, but nobody seemed to mind. Getting back onto his feet, Shinji just shook off Asuka's comment, she never did actually sleep in his room, just watch him fall asleep then vanish, Shinji knew it was due to the kidnapping, and headed to his room.

Opening the door and stepping into the darkened room, Shinji soon found a very unexpected sight. Rei stood before him clad in her plug suit and something that looked like a collar with a triangle hook on it, around her neck. "Master, you've returned," Rei said happily as she ran over to him and through her arms around him, dropping her manga in the process.

'I'm getting a lot of hugs today,' Shinji thought absently as his eyes adjusted to the light and he looked down at the manga at his feet. "Rei-chan, you've been reading 'DearS'?" His question was as pointless as it was evident. Rei had been reading 'DearS' and as expected assumed the role of Ren, making Shinji the Takeya of her mind, meaning he was her master. 'This isn't going to end well,' Shinji thought as Rei asked if he needed nursing, which was a code word for something else, and if you've read or seen DearS you know what that is.

And Shinji was right, as Asuka returned, Sasami and Misato in tow, the trio of girls were livid with how Rei had augmented her plugsuit for maximum exposure yet still being descent enough for television. Asuka breathing fire into the small room at her angelic counter part, Misato crying in the doorway, and Sasami yelling at how indecent it all was and for Rei to release her fiancé. Yes just another typical night at the Katsuragi home, ending with Rei in Shinji's closet, Kos-Mos was still at Nerv making Kotoko, Asuka's floating head over his bed, and Sasami back at Washu's begging for a dual wedding and the removal of her competition. Misato was left to drink alone in her room and sulk.

X-DearS is one odd Manga, but I actually like it –X

Now Urd was all about being playful and having a good joke when times allowed for it. She had initially thought of just what lewd nighties to give to Belldandy and energy drinks to give to Keiichi as her wedding presents. That all changed when Belldandy politely dragged her off into her tearoom at the temple after Keiichi left to reserve the dining hall for the reception dinner. Urd had never been so afraid of her sister as she was during that five minute dialogue. 'I knew Bell was anxious about this wedding, but to threaten me? I mean honestly threaten to…its so unlike her!' Urd thought as Misato and her guests started to file into the small Catholic Church the wedding practice was to be held in.

Belldandy, much like any woman getting married for the first and hopefully only time, wasn't taking shit from anybody about anything. It would be perfect or she would show the offenders just what powers a Goddess 1st class unlimited was capable off, all while smiling and acting polite. Urd just hoped that Misato was aware of this, as her guests seemed a bit off. Rushing up and hugging her old drinking buddy warmly, Urd smiled wide. "Misato it's been so long! Why haven't you called or taken me out for drinks since you graduated?"

Returning the embrace with equal joy, Misato did feel remorse for neglecting old friendships. "I'm sorry, I've just been so busy with this whole saving the world business. I'm here now though, and I have to say it's about time they got married!" Pushing herself away from Urd, Misato was startled to see the bronzed woman's attire, which usually was borderline indecent, was very proper. "And what happened to the old 'flashy' Urd I used to know?"

"Bell's being very protective of this ceremony, and was very clear that I don't do anything that would be considered 'untactful.'" Urd's smile was small and slightly sad, did her sister not trust her or was it just wedding jitters? Putting her own self-assessment to the side, Urd turned to see the assembled crew that Misato had brought with her. "Misato…these are your friends for the wedding?"

Looking away from Urd nervously, Misato nodded as Asuka proceeded to pick Shinji up and start walking towards a confessional, she was almost positive she heard her say 'lets see if we can contaminate it.' Embarrassment etched across her face, "I'm sure she's just playing around, Sasami would never allow it anyway. So where is the blushing bride and her hubby at?"

Probing all of the assembled guests, Urd was nearing a panic state. 'How the hell could Misato have meet all of these things! She appears to be the only pure human out of all of them!' Urd's eyes came to halt when they fell upon the only male, they only needed one more male to fill the roster as all of Nakomi Tech wanted to be part of 'the wedding of the century.' With the boy's power radiating over her, Urd turned back to Misato, "Bell's in back right now putting on her practice dress, we won't let her wear the real one until tomorrow, I'll go get her." And hopefully convince her sister to not send all of the new additions to their own private hell.

Misato pondered why Urd had sprinted flat out towards the back of the church, or why she looked paler to her, but those were questions for later, right now she had to convince Kos-Mos and Rei to not attempt to pull Asuka's wings off. 'Why do I have to be the one to deal with this?' Urd thought as she shut the door to the back vestibule where Belldandy was putting the finishing touches on her dress, that while it had so many layers one could get lost in them still had less than the actual wedding dress. "Bell, Misato's here and she brought the rest of the wedding party."

Turning on her invisible heels, Belldandy's face was radiating happiness. "I'm so glad, we haven't had much communication with Misa-chan." Her honey sweet voice wafting over the short distance of the room, filling both Urd's, and Skuld who was helping her beloved sister, body with joy untold. Both sisters' knew that Belldandy's emotional state affected those around her, and with the Goddess of the Present as happy as she was, global peace was possible. Urd had to stifle a laugh when she thought about how the wedding night might affect the world. She bet a lot of children would be sired that day.

Putting the idea of how a sexually driven Goddesses urges could affect the mass of humanity to the side, Urd had to address a very important issue. "About those she brought though…" Urd didn't want to cast doubt on her old friend's choice in companions but they were a little odd. Belldandy just tilted her head and asked 'what about them.' Scratching her chin, Urd chose to just go flat out and tell her. "One of them is my step sister, a princess of hell, one of them appears to be part angel, and I don't know how to describe one of the other girls. She seems like us but her power is different. Misato brought a girl that looks like one of Skuld's creations, and lastly the boy is um…well if I felt it right has power to rival my mother."

In true Belldandy fashion, she smiled, nodded and said, "That's lovely, we'll have a nice assortment of people to watch me and Kei-chan become wed. Isn't that lovely?" Yes Belldandy had either missed the point or didn't care. She was going to get her perfect wedding and nobody not even her Father was going to stop her. She'd made a nice little video about what would happen if He tried to separate them. Those who watched it were still in shock. (Ok that was a blatant plug for my OMG fic 'Fallible' but hell I can do that if I want…see I just did it.)

Walking back to the door and taking a peek at the newest addition to the growing throng of people, that being the Motor Club, Urd just hoped she'd live to see the end of the next day. "Hope that boy can drink, because he's being drafted into the bachelors party, and you Skuld better be ready for the bachelorets party tonight, Megumi and I set it up."

Above the Earth and under it however, forces were plotting to ruin such a pairing and they would try their best to do so. As the men and woman got lined up according to height to see who their partner for the whole of the ceremony was to be, only Skuld was minutely happy. She, being the shortest girl was paired with the shortest man, and that was Shinji. Now Skuld didn't know why she was getting the evil eye, she just knew she didn't have to hold hands with, walk with, and in the end dance with one of the smelly muscle bound men of the motor club.

Yes, much luck was going to be needed to keep the wedding from going off without a hitch. But you won't get to see that yet because.

X-That's the next Chapter-X

Yeah this chapter was a little weird and all over the place, but I think it was good. Hope you liked it and I hope you continue to support this and my other stories. This is the end of part of three for the Wedding arc so if you want any characters to say from it…you need to vote, 5 votes keeps any of the wedding arc characters onboard, if they don't they hit the trail after this arc is over.

Oh and FYI I'm thinking about doing a standard pairing fic…just don't know who to start with, any suggestions?

Ja Mata

Zentrodie (zentrodie at secondimpact dot com)

Omake

Updated Battle lines!

Those wanting a Harem: deinku, VCR, Jon Cook (w/o Asuka), mc2rpg, Positron(for now), Hank, Finalfantasyxii, chan,ken, kins of Ireland, Mordamir, Kman, Valtiel, Epsilon, ShadowCascade, EchoGarrote, Vic, Frank the Bunny (Don't chain me up!), NateGold, Gord, Slake-Sama, Zemzaba, TheWickerMan, Dark Anomaly, Bobby, (Unknown mass), Masumune, Variable Creatue, Tyson, Drake Smith, Rusty Knight, Bonta-Kun ,Production, Messiah3, WingOmega, DarkStarlkerFan (and wait), Crono10, Aladeth, Vic, Idiot564, ChronoTravel, Blood of Odin, Kman,Razial the Damned, Warden, Zang-Sama, Jizzle the uncontrollable Jazzle, NefCanuck, ChronoTravel, Andrew Joshua, JWM Talon, Dwing, Tracker, Combat, DWD, North freezing(and don't count Attim out!), Ttestagr, Migele , Shiro, Kyoshin, Soul Stealer, Exocite, Kd8gun,Secaid, Lord Anime, The Gate Keeper, Wind Omega, GrandMoffPooky, Jace, Sinthenas, Drazen Flame, Rootathell, Bandonvi, Darklion74, Berserker1 Total: 72

Those siding with Kos-Mos: Xeo, Konos the Grey, ScienceMonkey, Nicknack, DarkChuchuo, Sybian Machine, Final Max, Crrot, Sol bandus, Pandomine, Vaurnut, NickNack, Soulless, Sleepy Kitty, Deus, renzokuken-sama, James Ray Edwards, KevinEc, Alpha Draconis1, a fan3, Science Monkey, Serpent Spy, Soulless, Jin Kazemeijin, Kyubi, CheeseKing, Typhon, "The Man in the Pallid Mask," Cyber Angel One, Sideris, Anomaly27, Slayer6, SickToTheGore, Tempest Destiny, Le Bete Noir, Urtv 17, Ordinary Joe, Sideris, Absu7, B52, SilentAssasinMecha, Hokage-Sama, Drakandrin, Tonberry, URTV-666, U-DO, Wings of Lead, l33t0n3, Obsessed Uber Rei, Imaginary404, KinZoku, Renzokuken-sama, rongten, Alexander-K, planket shrimp, Saint Jack, Virtigo900, Ghost140, Education, Gkatheller, Duo, Genisyn69, Corruption, Momo, MasterBlaster, Ex-Parrot Total: 66

Those siding with Rei: Otaku-Dman, Vibious, SoulFire, Macavity the Mystery Cat, Dark Machine, Philg, NickNack, Azurewind, Redmage2k, Rei-aka-Ayanami-chan, jennyjennie, rgreat, Katfum, Oni-Otaku, wiseman, Crimson Arrow, Player0, GoldmonX, Mak, Pert-kun, The Mad Shoe, Mattman65, Herder of cats, DeathScyth, Seraphy, TheCrawlingChaos, Lord Amon, Vertigo900, Ronn, Asanohoshi, Ayanami-Lover, Fanfic-addict, Rei'sGuardian Total: 33

Those siding with Asuka: Kusinagi, Nova10, Vibious, Final Max, Kuracao, Redshadow64, xXx, Supereva0102, Asuka-fan, SOMEBODY, Supereva01, Knighsshadow, WarpWizard, Dude, Dragon's death, Uniden, A/S Fan X 2, Edhunne, Old Foo, Deathaanimefan32l, Sledge, Soul Eva, KoalaKiller, GodSpeed, Neumann, Deatheva Total: 27

Those siding with Hotaru Tomoe: Doomed One, Dchimera, Ze Black Knight, Hotaru, Golden Kitsune, Keimythe Tiger, Urber Leet Total: 8

Those siding with Blue haired girlsOrganized Kaos, Trikster , Kima Prideflame, Nick McC, Shinzaku, M.E.S.S, Total: 7

Those siding with Sasami: Doggystyle, razzor15, Vaurnut, Omrianh, Faoron Total: 5

Those siding with Mana: Steve Vader, Chewy, Total: 3

Those siding with Yui Ikari: Education, Player 0, Korean Sage total: 3

Those siding with Shion Uzuki: Remenants, Final Max Total : 2

Those siding with Misato: Kippenberger, JVR Total: 2

Those siding with Hikari: Amathyst Wind Total: 1

Those siding with Aisha Clan Clan: Bloody Angel X Total: 1

Those siding with Chiyo: Biting Cat Total: 1

Those wanting me to burn in fiery hell and never update this story again: Lord Inari Total: 1

And there you have it! Harem has taken over Kos-Mos as a few of the lovely androids supporters have pulled alliances and now…now the Horde is the dominant party! Will it stay that way? Will Asuka who is now slowly building up steam and coming closer to beating her blue haired rival jump ahead. And what about Kos-Mos will she fall to the side, will her supporters just back down and die?

What of Sasami and Hotaru, who've been waiting for the chance to strike, Its up to you! You determine who gets the center stage and who steals the limelight! The wedding is coming up very soon and those in the lead get better roles and…gasp maybe something else?

Chose your side! Grab you chibi banners…and you shall be victorious!

Omake 2, because I said so

Walking down the street, invisible to those they passed buy, Kami-sama of universe-X and one of his masters…I mean pre-readers looked upon the creation around them. "So what do you think of my creation this time. I think its getting better. We have seriousness and funny and a tiny bit of adult content." Kami-sama's face a bit flush due to his embarrassment of the topic.

Golden Kitsune wasn't much as pleased as Kami-sama was. "Man, we need to get you laid man…I mean all this stuff and no action. Why hasn't a girl just taken him to a closet and rocked his world?" The Canadian said in an exasperated tone, having reminded Kami countless times of his problems relating to all things female.

"I…um…about that they're polite…and…um…I'm not good at creating stuff like that." Kami said looking for an escape route, knowing that imminent beat down was approaching. 'Man, things are getting weird and all…but if I did do that, then it wouldn't be as funny in my mind.'

Patting his friend on the back, "Ah, don't worry so much about it. Have fun with this like you always do, but try to be a bit more open to the real world man. You're to nervous and pent up. Now let me tell you how I see it." What followed was the usual, and in the end Kami-sama had to take notes and wonder why he didn't pass the handle of creator over to his masters…or prereaders. As after GK told him about his ideas…his French friend did the same, then his Australian, and lastly his American. Leaving a very data overloaded Kami-sama with inadequacy complexes to last the next hundred years.

PEACE OUT AND THANKS TO YOU ALL AGAIN…ok.


	19. Belldandy isn't crazy just tense

Standard Disclaimer!

Ok I know its been awhile, but I've been working on a lot of other stories as I'm sure you've noticed…well Hopefully. Working on a horror novel now too if I ever get done with it I hope you read it. And lastly we must burn 4kids to the ground for destroying One Piece and the Grand Battle game…honestly do they think we want to listen to horrid voice actors…sigh.

X Let this be a lesson to men who doubt a woman's want of a happy wedding day X

What We Make Of It

Chapter 20 – Preparations

Or

Don't piss with Belldandy

Marriage is a sacred event in the lives of those who believe in it. Belldandy had dreamt of her wedding ever since she knew how much she loved one Keiichi Morisato. Now it isn't un-thought of for a bride to be 'possessive' about her wedding, or be angry when people try to mess around with it where they shouldn't, Belldandy was such a woman. However Belldandy had one thing that most women didn't, she had near godlike powers and enough kindness in her to drown an entire platoon of the vilest bounty hunters. Mix those two things together and you have one very polite killing machine.

Belldandy could still remember the day Keiichi got down on one shaky knee and timidly asked her to marry him she nearly exploded. And as a result of her happiness uptake a planet on the outer rim of the universe burst into a few trillion pieces. From that point on whenever anybody neared Belldandy's ears with a set of earrings…they immediately exploded. There would be NO sealing of her powers until after the wedding, she had too much to do and plan. The night after she accepted Keiichi as her lover until the end of time, the pair sat on the veranda outside their home. Keiichi looked up at the night sky for a star to promise his undying love on, when Belldandy noticed this she created one in a galaxy far far away that would never die. The environment of the small but lush planet of Tatooine was forever changed into a desert planet.

Right now however, garbed in her practice dress, sans-earrings, Belldandy ran down the aisle of the church where she would be wed, a new building as Catholicism was still rare in Japan, and wrapped her arms around an old friend. "Misato how have you been, its been ages!" Belldandy's honeyed voice echoed in the small building. A stark change from how she had only moments ago ordering the entire wedding party to stand in line based on height. After the arrangements were set she reverted to her normal self.

Pushing the overly happy bride-to-be away from her body, in lieu of being crushed by her, Misato tried to smile despite the pain. "Belldandy, I'm so happy for you. I just knew you two would get married." Misato was shocked at the change in Belldandy's demeanor. The Belldandy she had known from school was passive, polite, caring, and basically a doormat. She had never believed she'd see a day where Belldandy made anybody do anything they didn't want to. But Misato couldn't argue with what she saw, and she had just scene Belldandy grab Asuka by the shoulders, look her in the eye, whisper something softly into Asuka's ear causing the demon to pale, then shove the young girls hand into the sweating hand of one pervert Aoshima. 'Whatever Bell said to Asuka, must have been something bad. Never seen that girl look so scared before.'

Glaring daggers at the small black haired sister, Rei wasn't happy with her pairing either. 'How can my half-sisters expect me not to see what's going on?' All but throwing the hand of Skuld's ex-boyfriend Sentaro from her body, Rei walked right up to Belldandy as she separated from Misato. "I demand you change these arrangements, I will not let Shinji be paired up with your sister." A few complying grunts from Kos-Mos and Sasami were heard, Misato would have but she was to mystified by the changed Belldandy, and Asuka…well Asuka's mind was on a trip someplace far away.

Belldandy's little chat with Asuka could easily be summed up with a few words, but I'll extrapolate. 'She threatened to send me to my own personal Hell.' Being a demon, Asuka scoffed at that notion, at first. When Belldandy forced a vision of such a hell, full of sadist bunnies of love that would do nothing but hug her and thank her for hurting them, Asuka felt like vomiting in terror. 'That bitch is crazy!' Asuka thought as she witnessed Belldandy turn to Rei quizzically.

"Oh sister-in-law, whatever do you mean. This is all set up based upon height you know? It is not my fault it happened that Skuld and Ikari-kun were the shortest," Belldandy's features where pleasant a loving smile shining towards Keiichi, her voice however was accusing. Walking away from Misato and putting hand on Rei's shoulder, the albino half-angel winced at the force of Belldandy's squeeze. Turning Rei to face her perfectly, Belldandy leaned over and looked deeply into Rei's eyes. "You don't really have a problem with this do you?"

Rei's mind, still awash with DearS and the feeling that she needed to be with her master, also the true Rei's desire to be with her beloved starting to break through, was frozen. A small creature trapped in the gaze of a fierce predator. Rei wished to speak out protests, demand that her place be with Shinji, height be damned, yet she couldn't. "I…I…" Belldandy's grip started to grow cold and Rei's body numbed under it. "I understand, sorry for making the fuss."

Instantly Belldandy's painful and chilling grip was soft and warm, just like the smile that never left her face. "I knew you would dear, now back in line, we have to start the practice." Rotating Rei around on the balls of her feet, the pilot of Unit-00 hadn't even noticed herself being pushed back to the waiting form of the young cyclist. Taking the boys hand in hers, and fighting down the feeling of revulsion that past over her. 'This boy is a pervert,' Rei felt flowing from his hand, she heard his lip service as he tried hitting on her. He commented on how beautiful her hair was and how soft her hand was, but Rei felt nothing for him but coldness and lies. Looking down the line for a moment where Shinji and Skuld appeared to be talking happily, Rei longed to be there.

"Uh, so you like robots and stuff," the large bulk of a human that was Tamiya asked the android he had been paired with. While he was a fierce and powerful man, Tamiya was never more afraid of anything in his life. The cold and hard red eyes of the woman next to him bore into his soul. He had tried multiple times to strike up a conversation but each aborted question was met with the narrowing eyebrows of the woman.

'If that 'thing' wasn't so powerful as to terrify the demon bitch I'd have never allowed this to happen,' Kos-Mos's internal computer thought. But Kos-Mos knew her place after watching not only Asuka but Rei attempt to place themselves with her master only to be defeated with only a apparent soft touch. 'Her power is so large and vast she'd be able to take all of us down,' her optical sensors gauged. The man next to her was talking again, she felt his gaze up and down her body on a few scarce occasions. "I have no like or dislike for robots."

Taking the comment in stride, it was the only time Kos-Mos had responded to him, Tamiya pressed on. "But uh, then why you dressed like that?" The feel of metal and plastic pressed against his side was hard to ignore. After watching Keiichi and Belldandy for so long, Tamiya wanted to girlfriend of his own, and he hoped to get one at the wedding. 'She is really pretty to,' he thought as he clenched Kos-Mos's hand tighter.

Pulling her offended hand out of the meat encasement that Tamiya's hand provided. Kos-Mos held her palm out before the man's eyes. "I am not dressed like anything, this is my body." Willing her fingers to change into an assortment of bladed weaponry, Kos-Mos held back a smile that threatened to destroy her mask of non-caring. 'But his face shows so much fear it is almost comical,' wagging the blade that her index finger had become dangerously close to Tamiya's face, Kos-Mos suddenly felt very weak and her body returned to its original form.

Belldandy had been watching. She had seen the cruel way Kos-Mos was playing with the auto club's ex-president. "I'm sorry but there will be no edged weapons needed for the wedding party. The security has been taking care of by Benpei-kun." Calling on her powers, Belldandy communicated to the soul of Kos-Mos's suit and shut the androids energy down to minimal. 'She will be returned to full power after my day is over,' Belldandy thought happily.

Seeing the world for the first time without the benefit of technology, her sense of security robbed from her, Kos-Mos looked at Belldandy as Rei and Asuka had done and knew true fear. 'That woman is insane,' Kos-Mos actually thought, as she was now basically a human with robotic limbs. But something else came from that, with her cyber brain shut down, Kos-Mos no longer had the obedience circuit running, she no longer HAD to obey Shinji as a slave. 'I don't HAVE to answer to Shinji-sama anymore…I WANT to. My feelings…they aren't of obligations but of honest care and want…I truly love him.' Her body felt warm and tingly, her face was fully blushing as she learned the truth of her feelings. Tamiya was just happy to feel Kos-Mos hug her arm against his body, looking over at Otaki he felt pity for the other man who hadn't even been allowed to hold his partners hand. Misato wasn't going to have any of that.

"Alright everybody, lets start practicing. Men to the front of the church, women to the back," Belldandy chirped over the general murmur of men hitting on very non-responsive women. A few seconds lapsed and still the general pleas and begs of the desperate and lonely men of Nekomi Tech continued. Men hit on girls far younger than them, men hit on women with the power to rip their spines out of their body and floss with it, and men hit on women that weren't of this earth. All that occurred while Shinji and Skuld discussed how exactly to increase the power of an SDAT player and Keiichi smiled blissfully ignorant of all his wife's coming insanity.

Slapping her hands together, Belldandy tried again, "Everybody, its time we start." While her voice hadn't been a yell it had increased in volume. It was so loud in fact that the sound waves pressed Misato's shirt and Sasami's hair went whipping behind her head. That got everybody's attention. And for the next four hours the forced smiles on the wedding parties face never faulted in fear Belldandy would see it. They walked like condemned men, forced, ridged, and all the while faking happiness. It started out fine, but after the twenty fifth walk up and down the aisle they all wanted out, even Skuld. So when Belldandy decreed it was time to head to the motor club for the post practice meal they all fled as fast as possible.

X- Just be thankful that Belldandy isn't evil or we'd all be dead-X

Looking around the small but cozy bistro, Shinji smiled contently. Belldandy had insisted that to better function at the wedding and at the reception afterward the pairs were to eat alone and not at large tables. So Shinji sat looking at Skuld from over a small table, the food plates empty and dessert on the way. 'She seems happy but upset, I wonder why,' Shinji thought as Skuld continued to enlighten him on how she would have better created Kos-Mos. "Skuld-san, are you…happy about your sisters upcoming marriage?"

Listen from the tables all around them; many sets of ears were tuned to Shinji and Skuld's conversation and not that of their diner partners. Asuka tried to fight back the urge to rush the young Goddess and slam her chopsticks so far up her nose they reached her brain, but one look at the head table and Belldandy sent Asuka's mind back to her private hell full of masochistic love bunnies. Sasami felt odd, and not just because of her want to be with Shinji, and being mostly ignored in this chapter, a part of her felt missing. Misato was drunk, very drunk so she just laid on her table while Otaki cried silently.

Back at the table however, Skuld was very pleasantly surprised by her partner for the next days festivities. He was such a good listener and didn't seem to have Sentaro's perverseness. "Of course I am Shinji-kun, why do you think otherwise?" It was the first time Shinji had actually asked a question of her and in reality Skuld didn't want to face it. She pushed the last bit of food on her plate around listlessly trying to ignore the pain of seeing Belldandy and Keiichi holding hands at the main table, Urd and Megumi smiling and laughing at them on the sides of the table. 'I'm losing both my sister and Keiichi,' not one of the Goddesses that lived with Keiichi Morisato didn't love him in some extent.

Sipping his tea as he thought of how to describe why he felt the way he did about Skuld's temperament Shinji paused. Setting the porcelain cub down, "You just seem to look at the head table a lot and sigh. Morisato-san seems like a nice man do you know something Belldandy-san doesn't?" Shinji hated to judge others, but something about those two made him feel good, he liked them. The low lighting in the bistro shaded Skuld's blush, she'd been discovered, and another positive about Shinji she now knew was he was perceptive.

"I'm happy for her, for them. Its just…they're always so happy and love each other so much," Skuld's voice was slowly filling with a sadness to it. Living in her sisters' shadows Skuld didn't know what to expect from life. 'Sister is so beautiful and loved by everybody, and Urd's so much more powerful and even…sexy.' Skuld hated to admit anything positive about Urd, but she couldn't deny the bronze self-proclaimed Goddess of Love was very attractive.

Now Shinji wasn't an expert on emotion, far from it, but he could tell that Skuld was hiding something painful that would be best exposed. Being bold, something that was happening more often for him, he slid his hand over the balled fist of Skuld. "But something is bothering you isn't it. It might help if you talk about it." All around the small room gasps and muttered curses were being uttered. Kos-Mos slammed her fist against the table, and without her powers, received a very nasty bruise on her hand. Rei spit her drink out in a shower over Sentaro's face; he wasn't upset at all. Sasami excused herself from the room, she claimed she wasn't feeling well, and wasn't. It pained her to see her fiancé consoling another woman so tenderly when she hardly had any time with him.

The worst was Asuka, after witnessing her vassal helping the pathetic Goddess, she could no longer contain her rage. Fire and brimstone started falling from the sky outside of the city. Aoshima looked at her, "Problem my dear, do you need to use the restroom, I'll take you there if you…" Asuka's eyes lanced Aoshima's and in an instant the mortal knew primal fear. A wet sensation in his pants distracted his attention away from the black pits rimmed with fire that had taken place of Asuka's eyes. He didn't say anything else that night. Her nails bit deeply into the table, roughly an inch or so, turning to reclaim her vassal and end this farce of helping Belldandy, Asuka turned to find herself face to face with the blushing bride to be.

Belldandy had a light frown on her face as she took Asuka's hand out of the table, the passionate anger on Asuka's face died instantly in the presence of such superior power. "Now Asuka-san, we can't have a wedding if there is mass genocide going on around the country. I think you need to be punished for that." Before Asuka could open her mouth to protest, or draw the attention of anybody she winked out of the restaurant and to exactly where Belldandy threatened to send her. Passing by Skuld and Shinji's table, Belldandy noticed how Shinji's hand had just met her sister's. As she sat back down at the main table, Belldandy let a bombshell out that got both Urd and Keiichi thinking. "I think Skuld and the Ikari boy look nice together."

The shock of the warm touch was slowly wearing off, and becoming not something feared but welcomed. Skuld smiled truthfully for the first time that day but it was a sad smile. "I just know I'll never be like her. She…both of my sisters are so much better than me." Pulling her hand back to her body, Skuld rested both on her lap as the waitress set the double chocolate sundae in front of her.

Not knowing of Skuld's near obsession with ice cream, Shinji didn't think it odd how she didn't start eating her food. Sampling the frozen treat, Shinji commented quickly, "This is really good, you should try it." Skuld brought her eyes back up to see Shinji holding his spoon out to her with her favorite food on it. "And don't worry about your sisters. You're younger than them now, but when you're their age I bet you're just as wonderful a person."

Blushing softly at the praise, Skuld timidly leaned forward and accepted the offered food. It wasn't the best ice cream she had, but for the first time in her life, that didn't matter. "Thank you Shinji-kun, I'll try to keep that in mind." Still with rosy cheeks, Skuld set to work on inhaling her own dessert. Urd and Keiichi watched the two continue to talk and mused on how to elevate the Skuld problem in their lives, and for another first they agreed. 'If Skuld starts seeing a DECENT boy, she'll be out of our hair!'

A loud crash, make that two loud crashes erupted on both sides of the Skuld/Shinji table, as Rei and Kos-Mos had enough. A less than impressive crash came from Misato's table as the affects of drinking way to much alcohol set in and she fell out of her chair and onto the floor. "Hey…da room is all…wavy an…" Belldandy chose to take care of Misato's sudden upset stomach in luau of Rei and Kos-Mos storming out of the room. It didn't matter whether they wanted to or not, all the wedding party members would be present at the respected parties after.

X- Ok so it wasn't very happy for everybody, but we can make up for it right? –X

"Morisato! Since you have to go and get married we the Nekomi Tech Auto club have one last thing to say to you!" Tamiya bellowed in the small confines of the Auto clubs main room. All of the tools and bike pieces being removed for this one night of enjoyment still didn't leave a lot of room for all of the men present.

Scratching his nose as his embarrassment rose, Keiichi tried not to make eye contact with his former sempai. "Tamiya, I'm glad you're happy for me, but I don't really want a bachelors party." For all Keiichi knew, Urd was about to dive into the room and put on a strip tease, he didn't put it past her. What Keiichi really wanted was to talk to that Shinji boy about Skuld, and if they all got drunk it wouldn't happen.

Wrapping his arm around Keiichi's neck, Otaki gave the soon to be married man a squeeze. "Morisato-kun you have to accept this. Our last gift to you before marriage!" Whether Keiichi wanted a party or not was a moot point, it was a reason to party and that was all the auto club needed. They'd spent a large sum of money on the exotic dancer and booze and they didn't intend for it to go to waist because Keiichi was whooped. 'And with a name like 'The Mysterious Jango' this girl will probably be great!'

Shinji sat in the corner and watched the older men opening beers and pouring saki into small cups. 'I'll never understand why people like getting drunk.' Shaking his head, Shinji saw Keiichi's friends heading to the door with big smiles on their faces. When the diner had ended, Shinji was saddened greatly to see the angered faces of Rei and Kos-Mos, was hurt to know that Sasami and Asuka had left. 'I've done something to upset them I bet. But why would my helping Skuld-san make them angry…unless…could they be jealous?' Such an unbelievable thing, but Shinji couldn't refute it. More and more lately he'd been thinking about his relationships with the girls in his life. 'Could I have been wrong when I thought they don't…'

Breaking Shinji's thought train at a pivotal point, and keeping him from deeper understanding of his situation, a huge scream erupted from the doorway. "Tamiya you damn idiot look at what you've done!' Otaki yelled as he walked back into the room obviously VERY angry. Following the spark plug wearing man was an oddly dressed man. A large hat covering his head and heart shaped glasses over his eyes, the man appeared to be either gay or an early Michel Jackson impersonator. "You hired a male hypnotist you dumb ass!"

The room just sighed, why they let Tamiya plan anything was a mystery, and the latest upset should have been expected. "Now now, I'm sure…um…Mr. Jango was it? Can still be very entertaining." Keiichi tried to console the lusting men, but failed miserably. It didn't really matter in the end however as once the alcohol starting flowing and Jango starting hypnotizing people with his odd disk things starting to pick up well. 'One…Two…JANGO now GO TO SLEEP!' he yelled once and the odd man fell over himself to a roaring crowd of men.

Two hours into the party and one clucking Aoshima later, Keiichi slowly sat down next to the sober and finally smiling Shinji. The feeling that he'd somehow wronged the upset girls at the diner was still on his mind, but watching the hypnotist had slowly started to make Shinji happy. The same was with Keiichi but he also had some beer so he was not only happy but tipsy and the only man on earth to not have pre-wedding gitters. If he did, Belldandy would have known and he'd never have lived to tell the tale. "Enjoying yourself Shinji-kun?" Keiichi's happy voice drew Shinji's attention and the can of soda in his outstretched hand was taken.

A brief hiss came from the can as Shinji pulled back on the metal tab, was he having fun? Downing a large portion of the drink Shinji thought he'd just say he was, no use in bothering Keiichi with his problems. "I've never been to a bachelor's party before," he'd never been to any party before, "but so far I'm enjoying myself." Jango's last bout of entertainment, turning Otaki into a dog, brought on a laugh from the depressed pilot.

Knowing the look on Shinji's face, he'd had it enough to know it by heart Keiichi realized he had something to work with. "Girl trouble Shinji-kun?" Keiichi was happy to see the small nod from the boy next to him, his hopeful savior from the wrath of Skuld's sister worship. "I was a lot like that before I met Belldandy. But one good girl in your life can make all your troubles go away. She can make you happy when you're sad, care to you when your sick, and make you glad to be alive just knowing she's there." Leaning against the wall next to Shinji, Keiichi realized how much he meant what he said; Belldandy was such a blessing to him.

"You really love her don't you Keiichi-san?" Shinji spoke in hushed awe. Love, true love, was so rare in the times they lived in, to witness somebody so powerfully attached was a wonderful thing. Shinji envied Keiichi for that, believing he'd never have it. Pouring more of the carbonated liquid into his mouth, it burnt slightly as it went down to fast, Shinji wondered where Keiichi was going with his talk.

Noting the shy boy's head drooping, Keiichi saw his pray had weakened. "I do, and her sister is a lot like her you know. Skuld is a wonderful girl. And I think she might have taken a small shine to you. She never ate any food anybody offered her before except Belldandy. And Skuld has a small case of sister worship." How many lies and half-truths Keiichi had just said were beyond his reasoning. Asuka's father was laughing his ass off as he listened and hoped that after the divorce he'd be able to collect Keiichi's soul and show the mortal the exact moment he damned himself.

Shinji would have blushed and responded to Keiichi's comments about Skuld and ask why he'd brought up his to be sister in law, but after he heard the words, his world seemed to fade. He had no idea he was being teleported via the mirror propped next to the wall, but that was what was happening.

X- Now to travel back in time about…oh thirty minutes-X

Just as Jango arrived to the first anger of the auto club then to their drunken joy, the bachloret's party was staring at the small Shinto temple where Belldandy made her home. Gathered in her tearoom slash bedroom, the assembled girls sat listlessly. Most didn't want to be there, some wanted to tear the head off of the giggling black haired goddess, and one was catatonic…if you need to know the last is Asuka.

Megumi smiled nervously as Misato rubbed her temples. "Misato, how is the headache?" The grumble and pain filled moan was her only answer. After seeing the results of drinking on her friend, Belldandy helped removed all the offending fluid from Misato's body leaving her with a nasty hangover. Ignoring the death glare from her brother's friend, Megumi turned to the others. "So who wants to play a game?"

Rei was about to say 'lets play doctor using rusty knives,' but Belldandy spoke before she had a chance to. "How about we have a quilt off! We can all sew as quickly as possible and see who can make the best pattern?" The pure innocence of Belldandy's request left the room silent. Nobody could believe that she meant what she said, but Belldandy never lied so…was she actually suggesting they quilt?

The party's death was averted when Urd coughed politely. "That's a good idea Bell, but how about we play one of my board games ok?" Megumi paled while Misato smiled, both of them knew exactly what Urd had in mind. The games Urd had in her room were either borderline lewd or insane and nobody else but Belldandy knew about it, but Belldandy never saw anything wrong with asking somebody to 'take off your cloths and run around the room three times.' She saw the body as beautiful and what is wrong with showing beauty to others?

They gathered girls agreed to it, and in Asuka's case fell over and drooled a little, and Urd left to gather the pieces. 'I'll just set things up a little so we can pressure Skuld into that cute little boy's arms. Shame though with all that power I'm sure he'd grow into a hotty.' Once Urd was out of the room, Rei smiled and headed to the kitchen and returned with enough soda for everybody.

"I thought we could all go for a drink," handing everybody a can, Rei smirked at Belldandy's reluctance. 'She'll take it and drink it because she knew I went out of my way for it, she won't ruin the act of friendship,' Rei's DearS infused personality thought. Was it wrong to extort somebody because you knew his or her weakness? Yes. But Rei's defense was it was also wrong to force one's sister onto somebody else's soon to be boyfriend/master.

Sitting quietly next to the offending goddess, Sasami still didn't feel well. She felt weak and unsure of herself for some reason that she didn't like. The cold can, water condensing on its metal sides, remained unopened in her hands. 'Why do I have to be here when I feel like this? Why can't we get married? Why do I always feel so weak and helpless?' Sasami hated herself for her indecisiveness. The other girls seemed to be making so much more progress with her fiancé than she was, even the girl that just meet him today! "Thank you Rei, that was kind of you," Sasami still was polite to Rei though, after their shaking meeting their friendship had actually lasted after the angel battle.

Returning with her game in hand, Urd smirked at the round of sodas in everybody's hands. 'Somebody here is thinking like me…its more fun if everybody gets…' she didn't finish her thought, as it wasn't needed. Setting up the game the girls started to play one very nasty version of 'Life.' Sadly however it wasn't going as Urd had hoped after they had finished their third game. 'Misato's friends sure are light weights its only three a.m.,' she thought as she looked over at the sleeping bodies of Rei and Sasami, Asuka's eyes were open but nobody was home. "Misato you going to be ok…you look like your about to…" Urd's words ended with a thud as Misato tumbled over onto the tatami mat and was already snoring.

The three goddesses sat in the room now the only beings conscious. "So how you feeling?" Skuld asked nervously to her sister. The hope that Belldandy was nervous and was going to cancel the wedding was so close to dying it was receiving its last rites. Stopping from her act of moving the sleeping women into better positions, Belldandy only smiled.

"Guess that answers that huh," Urd grinned at Skuld, almost reading the girl's mind. Turning to more important matters. "So what about you Skuld-chan, you seemed to have been liking your partner a whole lot. You even ate ice cream off of his spoon." Urd's grin turned feral as she leaned over her younger sister's cowering body. The fear in Skuld's eyes was apparent, but if it was fear of being found out, or the fear that she enjoyed it wasn't known.

Clasping her hands together, Belldandy sat next to Skuld again. "Why yes, that was a lovely diner you had with that boy. Do you think you'd like to see him after the wedding? I could ask Misato for his address and phone number for you?" Such caring and love from her older sister about a boy was to much for the goddess of the future to take. She hadn't expected to get depressed during the meal, even less suspected the boy to try and succeed in consoling her.

"You're both just toying with me!" Skuld yelled in frustration as she got to her feet and ran from the room, a stream of tears falling from her eyes. Pulling her door closed and falling to her futon, Skuld buried her head into her pillow. She was losing her sister to Keiichi, she was losing Keiichi to her sister, she lost Sentaro to his sniffing Urd's underwear, and now she was being made fun of with the caring boy that reminded her that she was young and would only get better with age. 'Why did I have to met him this way? I'll never see him after this?' Her tear stained pillow didn't have any answers for her emotionally overloaded mind, but luckily sleep stole her quickly.

Back in the tearoom the other goddesses still sat talking. "So what do you think Bell, think Skuld might actually like him or is it just wedding high?" Urd and Belldandy weren't ignorant to Skuld's emotional state. Belldandy felt saddened by how Skuld's love for her had caused the young child such pain, but she loved Keiichi and wouldn't abandon him either. Seeing Belldandy shaking her head in the affirmative, Urd continued. "So what about him, think he might like to get to know our little sister more?"

Urd was in for a shock when Belldandy spoke next. "Either way it doesn't matter. If he likes her now great, if he doesn't, I'm sure we can get Skuld to MAKE him like her." The coke was working wonders on turning Belldandy into a drunken mischief-maker.

"Um Bell isn't that a little possessive? I mean making him how could she do that?" Urd was wondering just how many of the empty soda cans were the result of her sister. Counting out twenty such cans and seeing another in Belldandy's hand, Urd really didn't want to know.

A red haze fell across Belldandy's cheeks. "Well not all men are as…shy about physical love as my Kei-chan and I'm sure Skuld isn't a prude so I'm thinking we just see where that takes us?" Love was love and to Belldandy it was all good in the end if it meant the happiness of both involved. She had wanted to show her love for Keiichi physically a long time ago but his reluctance was something that was soon to go away. 'If he thinks he's going to get away with not consummating our marriage the first night…well consummating it several times he has another thing coming,' Urd just felt scared when the eerie giggly left Belldandy's lips.

Now Urd wasn't a prude either, she'd rather enjoyed the touch of a man, or woman on several occasions, but to hear her younger sister talk about it was just creepy. "Bell, you are talking about Skuld and that boy having sex right…he's only fourteen and she's only three hundred and twenty." If you didn't know Goddesses age a bit differently than humans.

"I don't see why that would be a problem, but if…if…what do I want to say…" the drunken Goddess tried to think but was finding it hard to. "Well we can ask him can't we?" Belldandy finally forced out as she pulled out a tiny mirror and before Urd could react had pulled the aforementioned boy through it. "Ah, perfect. Hello Shinji-kun how are you doing?"

Staring wide eyed at the semi-dressed Urd and drunken Belldandy, Shinji had fallen into many men's most pleasant of dreams, for him however it was something else. "How did I get here? Where am I?" He would have continued along those lines had Belldandy not put her finger to his lips.

"Shush now honey we have to…Urd why did I bring him here again?" Belldandy's mind had forgotten the reason she summoned Shinji to her room while they were preparing for bed. Urd being the evil little troublemaker she was had an easy answer for her.

"We wanted a male stripper but forgot to order one, you thought he'd be good for the job," Urd laughed as Belldandy smiled and turned looked expectantly at Shinji. When the boy paled and pressed himself against the wall, well Belldandy used her drunken goddess powers to elevate his fears and soon the two goddesses were the sole viewers of an unwitting near naked, they couldn't get his boxers off not matter how much magic they forced on him, dancing on the table. Shinji was luckily unconscious at this point and had wondered how he had yen in his waistline when he woke back in the auto club thinking he did have one hell of a dream.

X- So Belldandy can't handle being drunk well…she has to have a flaw right? –X

The reason Sasami had been feeling not quite herself that day was easily explained if one could see into the higher dimensions of the multi-verse. Tsunami her other half, had been called by her sister the forth goddess of creation…Kanako. Kanako taking a break from her mortal form as one Kanako Urashima was planning the wedding for one of her favorite granddaughters. "So Tsunami-chan what do you think of this cake design?"

"I think you need to get out of this black phase…it's been several millennia now!" Tsunami scoffed at the large black licorice frosted cake. Tsunami really didn't want to help Kanako plan the wedding, wanted to plan her own actually. As what Sasami felt, she felt as well, and she really wanted to be married. Being single since the beginning of all things had left her rather lonely. "And what about the musicians, you aren't really planning on the entire angelic choir are you? That universe has a set of rules you know?"

"Know? No Tsunami I don't know the rules of the universe I CREATED! I want the whole choir so I'm going to USE the whole choir. Belldandy deserves it." Kanako yelled. It was so hard to be quiet and resplendent on earth so when she was home she wanted to cut lose. It didn't help matters that the love interest she had on earth was now part of her adopted family. 'Seriously I created all of them and I can't get the one I like? What's up with that? Maybe I should reset things a bit so I can have him…my beloved Keitaro!'

Looking at the clock on the wall, Tsunami sighed again, "How much more do we have to go over…I DO have places to be and Washu and Tokimi don't have to help so why should I?" The siblings never really did get along with one another, always trying to outdo one-another with their creations. And Tsunami was no different. "So can we just go over the check list for the wedding so I can get out of here? My vassal isn't doing to well without me, and me her."

Kanako laughed at that, "its what you get for fusing yourself with a mortal. I just love um and leave um." Seeing Tsunami scowl at her, Kanako wisely shut up and handed her sister the wedding checklist. "We have the wedding at noon, followed by the reception, then my beloved Belldandy and her meat puppet husband go on a cruise of Valhalla for a while."

"What about security precautions, have you thought about those? What about Belldandy's dress or the food at the reception?" Tsunami asked noting the complete lack of worry and extreme favoritism her sister was showing to one of her grand children.

Looking incredulously at Tsunami, Kanako wondered if her sister had lost her mind. "Check the dress? What are you expecting it to be possessed and start eating guests? I mean how dumb of an idea is a killer wedding dress! Now come and help me pick out a few things to decorate the newlyweds sleeping quarters. If you help me I'll try and get things better for you and you lil Shin-chan." The look of fear and emberisment on Tsunami's face was worth the smack the supreme deity of earth received.

Two days later she would have punched Tsunami for not having her check the dress

X- Isn't it always how it goes? –X

Author notes

Sorry for taking to long but I've been a little depressed lately so I've not had the drive to write as much as I've wanted. Hope you liked this chapter and continue to support my work

Ja Mata

Zentrodie

Omake

Updated Battle lines!

Those wanting a Harem: deinku, VCR, Jon Cook (w/o Asuka), mc2rpg, Positron(for now), Hank, Finalfantasyxii, chan,ken, kins of Ireland, Mordamir, Kman, Valtiel, Epsilon, ShadowCascade, EchoGarrote, Vic, Frank the Bunny (Don't chain me up!), NateGold, Gord, Slake-Sama, Zemzaba, TheWickerMan, Dark Anomaly, Bobby, (Unknown mass), Masumune, Variable Creatue, Tyson, Drake Smith, Rusty Knight, Bonta-Kun ,Production, Messiah3, WingOmega, DarkStarlkerFan (and wait), Crono10, Aladeth, Vic, Idiot564, ChronoTravel, Blood of Odin, Kman,Razial the Damned, Warden, Zang-Sama, Jizzle the uncontrollable Jazzle, NefCanuck, ChronoTravel, Andrew Joshua, JWM Talon, Dwing, Tracker, Combat, DWD, North freezing(and don't count Attim out!), Ttestagr, Migele , Shiro, Kyoshin, Soul Stealer, Exocite, Kd8gun,Secaid, Lord Anime, The Gate Keeper, Wind Omega, GrandMoffPooky, Jace, Sinthenas, Drazen Flame, Rootathell, Bandonvi, Darklion74, Berserker1, Ghost140, Shinji the Good Sharer, Matt-Kun Total: 75

Those siding with Kos-Mos: Xeo, Konos the Grey, ScienceMonkey, Nicknack, DarkChuchuo, Sybian Machine, Final Max, Crrot, Sol bandus, Pandomine, Vaurnut, NickNack, Soulless, Sleepy Kitty, Deus, renzokuken-sama, James Ray Edwards, KevinEc, Alpha Draconis1, a fan3, Science Monkey, Serpent Spy, Soulless, Jin Kazemeijin, Kyubi, CheeseKing, Typhon, "The Man in the Pallid Mask," Cyber Angel One, Sideris, Anomaly27, Slayer6, SickToTheGore, Tempest Destiny, Le Bete Noir, Urtv 17, Ordinary Joe, Sideris, Absu7, B52, SilentAssasinMecha, Hokage-Sama, Drakandrin, Tonberry, URTV-666, U-DO, Wings of Lead, l33t0n3, Obsessed Uber Rei, Imaginary404, KinZoku, Renzokuken-sama, rongten, Alexander-K, planket shrimp, Saint Jack, Virtigo900Education, Gkatheller, Duo, Genisyn69, Corruption, Momo, MasterBlaster, Ex-Parrot, Chapter-Com Employee 5, Leet Ninja Mon, Duo, GKathellar Total: 69

Those siding with Rei: Otaku-Dman, Vibious, SoulFire, Macavity the Mystery Cat, Dark Machine, Philg, NickNack, Azurewind, Redmage2k, Rei-aka-Ayanami-chan, jennyjennie, rgreat, Katfum, Oni-Otaku, wiseman, Crimson Arrow, Player0, GoldmonX, Mak, Pert-kun, The Mad Shoe, Mattman65, Herder of cats, DeathScyth, Seraphy, TheCrawlingChaos, Lord Amon, Vertigo900, Ronn, Asanohoshi, Ayanami-Lover, Fanfic-addict, Rei'sGuardian, Rei-Chan Rocks Total: 34

Those siding with Asuka: Kusinagi, Nova10, Vibious, Final Max, Kuracao, Redshadow64, xXx, Supereva0102, Asuka-fan, SOMEBODY, Supereva01, Knighsshadow, WarpWizard, Dude, Dragon's death, Uniden, A/S Fan X 2, Edhunne, Old Foo, Deathaanimefan32l, Sledge, Soul Eva, KoalaKiller, GodSpeed, Neumann, Deatheva, bill, Lord Kain Total: 29

Those siding with Hotaru Tomoe: Doomed One, Dchimera, Ze Black Knight, Hotaru, Golden Kitsune, Keimythe Tiger, Urber Leet, El Captain Total: 9

Those siding with Blue haired girlsOrganized Kaos, Trikster , Kima Prideflame, Nick McC, Shinzaku, M.E.S.S, Total: 7

Those siding with Sasami: Doggystyle, razzor15, Vaurnut, Omrianh, Faoron, The Mad Shoe Total: 6

Those siding with Attim M-Zak: Ender, Chibinari, C&C Music factory Total 3

Those siding with Mana: Steve Vader, Chewy, Total: 3

Those siding with Yui Ikari: Education, Player 0, Korean Sage total: 3

Those siding with Shion Uzuki: Remenants, Final Max Total : 2

Those siding with Misato: Kippenberger, JVR Total: 2

Those siding with Hikari: Amathyst Wind Total: 1

Those siding with Aisha Clan Clan: Bloody Angel X Total: 1

Those siding with Chiyo: Biting Cat Total: 1

Those wanting female Shinji with Gendo: Hikarino Bansei Total: 1

Those wanting me to burn in fiery hell and never update this story again: Lord Inari Total: 1

And There you have it folks! The harem brigade is still leading the pack but their numbers have started to dwindle and many other forces claim Harem to be…distasteful? And who is this? Attim M-Zack makes a surprising leap over a unsuspecting crowd of small armies and the addition of Female Shinji getting it on with his father, don't ask I don't, has also formed into an army!

All this while The beautiful and talented demon from hell starts picking away at her angelic adversary! But what else is happening? Could it be that Sasami and Hotaru are forming up arms against the pilots? It could be! And unless Skuld gets two more mentions about her joining the crew we won't be seeing her anymore after this upcoming battle! Do you want that? Do you want her to stay? Then vote man, or woman if they case maybe, and if you are a woman…I guess this is a formal apology to not depicting bachelorett parties well, as you can safely assume I've never been to one.

Take up your banner, wave it proudly and undermine your foes!


	20. I said Boo dang it

Standard disclaimer!

Well here it is my Halloween offering and from my laptop no less, my desktop has decided to die so that's the end of that. All else is going well for me however, which is good. That being said its time for a special disclaimer

THIS IS NOT PART OF THE NORMAL "What We Make of It" TIME LINE! IT IS A STAND ALONE CHAPTER THAT IS OUTSIDE THE NORMAL TIMELINE.

Ok, that being said I don't want any people being angry with me for not finishing the wedding, that will occur in the next normal chapter. This is a special seasonal chapter. Well enough of me covering my ass.

X-X

What We Make of It

Halloween Special

Or

That's not my costume its my birthday suit

Thunder crashed, lighting flashed across the night sky, and rain fell heavily on the streets of Tokyo-3. The sudden storm left many of the younger children sad and downtrodden as they'd be unable to trick-or-treat that night in their costumes, nor would they amass large sums of candy that would leave them sick. Gendo Ikari however was very happy as his new toy for altering weather patterns seemed to be working quite fine. "I love being a maniacally evil bastard," he said to himself in the safety of the Geo-front, which being under the earth meant it was very dry and cozy.

Reaching for the pieces of his costume for the annual Nerv Halloween costume party, he sighed happily to himself. 'I've kept those damn stock holders in the dark and kept my son,' Gendo had to repress a shudder at the thought of the boy. 'Safely unaware of the party.' Yes it was hard to keep Shinji from learning of the party and any potential happiness the boy would have gotten from it, but it was a task Gendo was up to. Sliding his wig over his head, the long tied and beaded locks waved across his vision. "Now where is my cowboy hat and rhinestone jacket?"

Finding the last few articles of his costume, Gendo's sick smile spread across his face. Their would be many young women at this party, and Gendo had every intention of sampling the wares of his company, 'maybe even some of those stockholders daughters, get them to shut up about my son.' Yes Gendo wasn't thinking to much about his not quite dead wife that he intended to resurrect, it would have really put a downer on the infidelity. "Show me your titties bitches, I'm Gendo Ikari bitch!" he said in his best Rick James voice, it wasn't pretty.

"So this is what you've been up to while I've been away has it Gendo-chan?" a soft yet powerful voice wafted across the large dark office. With most of, those invited, Nerv already in the rec area near the pool, Gendo's security team had long since left the bastard open to any potential assassins. "I do have to say I'm not pleased with this dear."

Turning his head so fast that one of his wig extensions slapped his eye drawing water, Gendo eyed the door blearily. "Whose there and tell me why I shouldn't kill you right now?" he asked in his best attempt to sound evil. The tears in his eyes and his costume didn't apply to well to it. His vision slowly clearing and adapting to the light better, he could make out a white lab coat and short hair. "Ritsuko, I knew you'd come back to me, not much of a costume is it?"

The woman shook her head slowly and walked closer to Gendo and his tiny lamp. "I'm not that woman you had an affair with Gendo-chan. But I must say I'm not happy to learn that you've used that sweet little girl and her mother who was my best friend might I add." Gendo had to bite back a scream as he saw the woman as she entered the light. Brown hair, features soft yet stoic, it was his wife!

Rushing around the desk and throwing himself at the woman, Gendo wasn't expecting her to sidestep him. The resulting fall sent his costume sprawling all over the floor. "Yui…Yui! I've missed you so much!" Forcing himself to his hands and knees, Gendo's mind crept over issues man had dealt with for ages. 'Does she know about how much I've really slept around behind her back? I've got needs too damn it!' More to the point however he was thinking of why she didn't welcome his embrace.

The woman's eyes hardened, "Bullshit you've missed me. I've seen what you've been doing. Minute-man strikes again and with many scared and abused women. Using your position that I got you for this?" She tossed a plethora of photos at Gendo's prone body. Bending her knees, she lowered herself to look the man in the eyes, fear clearly etched in his eyes. "Do you have a good excuse for this disloyalty?"

'Need a lie…need a good lie or my hopes of getting Yui and Ritsuko into a three-way are over!' Gendo paled at the idea of losing his master plan. The Eva's, Seele, even Nerv itself was all geared in Gendo's mind to that end, being married to Yui was just a perk. "Now those other girls meant nothing to me…they tricked me! Yeah blackmailed me that if I didn't um…have relations with them they'd…" Gendo tried his best to think of something Yui loved that he could extort. "They'd um do them to Shinji, yeah I had sex with those women to save Shinji!"

The door to Gendo's office opened again, and this time it was Ritsuko. "Gendo-sama, you're unwitting slave is here to escort you to the party as ordered," her voice filled with as much revulsion and pain as possible. At seeing the man she'd been ordered to escort and be felt up by on his knees looking into the eyes of another Ritsuko had to hold back her laugh. "Oh my is that you Yui?" Ritsuko asked in mock adulation.

Sparing Gendo a moment of her fierce gaze the woman turned, 'now he says Shinji's name, before its was Third Child.' Meeting Ritsuko's gaze, she smiled warmly. "Why Gendo that wasn't a lie was it, what you said about Shinji or Ritsuko or those other women?" Reaching into her pocket she pulled out a pair of very sharp looking scissors. "Because if it IS a lie, I think I'll need to collect a trophy, and remember I have a character witness here," she pointed the blades at Ritsuko then at the crook of Gendo's legs.

"I um…you see…Shinji…Ritsuko…other women…I…DON'T CUT OFF LITTLE GENDO!" He blubbered as he covered his crotch with his hands sobbing, so distracted was he that he never even felt the taser Ritsuko used on him leaving him a smoldering pile on his office floor.

Pulling the brown wig off, Rei smiled softly at Ritsuko. "I believe you were right, that was most therapeutic. Now about my real costume, we must hurry as Shinji-san will soon be arriving at the party and I wish to…impress him." Rei said as she took out the contacts. Receiving the garments Ritsuko handed to her, that looked oddly like the other bundle in the doctors arms. "I'm going to be dressed in a similar costume as you?"

"It's a popular thing this year, don't worry I owe you for this," she pointed at Gendo. "So I won't steal Shinji from you." Ritsuko just didn't say 'today' so she appeared sincere. With a nod the women bound and gagged Gendo and stuffed him in a closet and prepared for the party.

X- Tell me he wouldn't freak if he saw his wife and his mistress at the same time –X

With so little notice, Shinji had to make do for his costume. He'd only heard about the party as Misato, Asuka, and Sasami changed and asked him about his own. So with twenty minutes worth of time, Shinji had to be creative. Also the girls didn't seem to want to let him see them before the party and left him to find his own way to Nerv. So as he walked into the crowded room, he felt very self-conscious. 'I wonder where Kos-Mos is, she said she'd be here too,' well the note he found Sumomo and Kotoko fighting over said so. Pulling at the lining of his kimono, Shinji just hoped he wouldn't look foolish wearing his formal kimono for a costume.

'Wow so many people are here, but I don't know who is who?' he thought as he scanned the many costume clad people. Taking stock in the high production of the gala, Shinji was amazed that his father would have paid for such extravagance. A karaoke machine and dance floor were to his immediate left, a full bar was stationed at the far end of the room, music blared over the load speakers, and people just looked happy. 'At least I'm not the only one with a bad costume,' he reasoned as he saw an atrocity to all things right and good in the world.

Walking up to Shinji was an either very brave or childish person, wearing a life sized Hello Kitty costume, the head alone roughly three feet across. "Oh hey there Shinji, kicking party isn't it?" the muffled voice resounded from inside the papier-mâché nightmare. "Didn't know you were coming as a seventeenth century daimyo, nice idea!"

Blushing at the compliment in embracement for the person wearing the costume in front him, with his tiny dot eyes and huge smile, he said. "Maya-san, how did you get that to fit inside the door?" Nobody but Maya would be so innocent about wearing a children's mascot for a costume yet intelligent enough to make an assumption about his costume.

"I put it together once I got inside," Maya admitted as she turned and pointed to an empty corner, as she turned she bounced the head of the costume off no less than three other party goes. "Well I think I saw Ritsuko-san over there, so I'll see you later ok Shinji, have fun!" Maya tilted her head and waved at him in a very Hello Kitty manner and struck a few other party goers as she headed off towards her mentor, leaving a path of destruction in her wake.

'Only Maya would do something so odd, but so fitting,' Shinji thought with a smile as he headed towards the bar. Taking a good look at the costumed people, he was in slight awe of some of the costumes. Some came in traditional costumes like vampires, nuns, ghosts, and policemen, but some of them were very extravagant. Mermaids, decapitated zombies, and he even thought he saw several princesses. Reaching the bar he ordered a soda and turned to watch one of the bridge crew, Aoba if he remembered the name correctly, getting on stage. "I wish I was brave enough to try singing like that."

Their pray in sight, the Misu sisters were fully prepared to make good of the situation. As Nerv was now a company that had to abide by stock holders, said stock holders were allowed to go to the party with one guest, and many of those guests were the second half of a betrothal set up by Gendo, and had their eyes on Shinji intently. Their spy network working for them, the Misu sisters knew what Shinji's costume was and dressed accordingly. "Why Shinji-sama, we didn't expect to see you here, did we Chocolate?" Tira said as the two women walked up to the young Ikari.

Turning away from the stage, Shinji nearly spit out his drink. "Tira-san Chocolate-san how have you been? I haven't seen you since father had me move out of your home." Shinji's cheeks burnt with embarrassment as he tried not to look at the visions before him. Garbed in tight fitting kimono's of accentuating colors to his own but with long slits up the side giving a very nice view of their shapely legs and a low cut in the chest region giving a nice view of their assets. Their faces painted white and lips glossed with rose red lipstick, the Misu sister's costume was antiquated much like his own, they were Geishas. "Those are…um…original costumes you have."

Chocolate nearly purred as she saw the look she was receiving from her young man. Taking his arm and wrapping it securely around her waist. "Now Shin-chan, we're doing fine, but we need you to complete our costume. You see what is a Geisha without a master," her voice was honeyed and alluring. Shinji's hand trembled against her body, much like Chocolate intended. "We've missed you Master, you really need to visit us more often, right Tira?"

Slightly irate at how easily her sister could act and flaunt herself while she was more refined, Tira walked around to Shinji's other side and took his arm in hers. "Yes we've missed you something aweful, m-master," it was harder for her to take such a demeaning pose, but it felt nice to have his hand in hers. "Now let's enjoy ourselves shall we?" Shinji nearly passed out at that point, but managed to remind himself that the Misu sisters were just affectionate.

X- Affectionate…yeah that's what I was driving for –X

He needed something new, something fresh, and something that would steal Misato's love away from whoever had it. Makoto's mindset was just that. Looking at the faces of the happy party goers, Makoto locked onto Misato's twirling form. Chatting with Ritsuko, who had donned cat ears, long leather gloves equipped with claws, and a very small gown that left little to the imagination. Misato's costume was worn by nine others, but those nine didn't attend the party, nor did they think of it as a costume. Calling back memories of Shinji's kidnapping Misato's choice in attire was that of the 'heroes of Justice.'

Her hair tied into dumplings and pigtails, her body wrapped in white form fitting cloth adorn with bows, and a tiara on her head, Sailor Misato was ready to administer some healing to the lonely heart of Shinji. She couldn't wait to find him and 'use her special healing powers' on him to make him forget all the bad things in his life. Makoto just nose bleed as he watched Misato twirl and lift the hem of her skirt to dangerous heights. "Ok hit the music guys I think I have it with this one!" Makoto said confident that his singing would win the heart of the fair damsel.

Punk music from pre-second impact America started to play and true to plan, Misato turned to the stage. A shiver lanced Makoto's back as he realized Misato was watching him, he was not going to disappoint her! "EVERYBODY GET DOWN WITH THE SICKNESS!" He screamed at the top of his lungs as the music kicked in, the problem was his voice warbled and creaked as nervous tension ate away at his stomach and mind. The song he had picked wasn't even widely known in Japan, and well they whole room burst into laughter.

"DUDE YOU SUCK!" a very happy heckler said from back by the bar. Another right up front of the stage pointed and laughed, "Play some Skinner man!" Trying not to be phased by the laughter, the mocking, or the urge to run from the room crying like a little girl and pee his pants he pressed on. The dance floor became a war zone however as Maya found the music very driving and started to head bang to it. While it did much to keep Makoto from his break down, it didn't help those next to Maya as she crushed her costumes head off of everybody near her. Maya's attempt at slam dancing then sent five grown men to the floor before she tired herself out and had to take a breather. The odd thing was that Makoto had stopped singing well before that happened.

Misato's face full of tears of laughter was all that it took to send Makoto off the stage and crashing into Asuka. "Watch it meat puppet. You're sadness sustains me but don't think I'll let you touch me!" Asuka said hotly, literally. Fire escaped her mouth and set Makoto's Elvis costume on fire. Feeling slightly better after drinking in the man's sadness and humiliation, Asuka again felt ready to find her vassal. 'It's a shame these human's can't appreciate my first choice in costumes,' Asuka thought as she pulled on her collar. "I'd have had him dress like Laharl if I'd know I'd be like this," she said to herself as she picked up her accessory.

Her costume was a parody of all things decent. Her hands clad in long black gloves that went up past her elbow, a pair of tiny red wings on her back attached right above her flimsy leather bra, while her pants appeared to be nothing other than two belts attached to one another. 'Etna always did have good fashion sense,' Asuka thought fondly of her brothers second wife as she fixed her hair again. "Lets go find my vassal."

"Asuka, is that you?" Shion asked as she walked over from the crowd that had formed around Makoto's burning remains. Blushing at how bold the girl was to be dressed in so little, Shion didn't know what to think. "And is that Misato's penguin?" the technician asked pointing to the penguin Asuka had her arms wrapped around.

"Just the body, I switched his soul with my slaves for the night, Prinnies need to speak," Asuka said in a matter of fact voice. Never did it appear wrong for her to play with the souls of mortals. Kaji squirmed in Asuka's embrace and tried to free himself of it and the bag on his chest. "Now stop that or I'll kill your mortal body slave!" Asuka yelled as she smacked the bird on the back of the head. Kaji complied, "Better, and that's not much a costume is it Uzuki-chan," being allied with Kos-Mos Asuka ventured to try and be nice to Shion, long enough to learn how to dispose of her ally when the time came.

Shion let out a golly laugh, "It doesn't look like much but I'm a homicidal slut bitch mad scientist." Shion did a little spin and her white lab coat billowed outward. Truth be told she had just took one of Ritsuko's spare uniforms complete with name tag. There wasn't a lot of happiness between Nerv Tech and Nerv Science departments. "And thank you for taking care of Kaji-kun, nobody liked having him hit on us while dressed like James Bond." Waving her finger at the now pissed off penguin, "Let this be a lesson to you Kaji, women have feelings and you better respect that."

'I hate my life,' Kaji thought darkly. One moment he's a good looking man hitting on everything that lived. He had a lot of success with it, that was until he met Asuka and didn't take stock in her comments. Now he was a slave to her, trapped in a penguins body, while the women he so sought after wanted to jump the bones of the bosses neglected kid. "Can you let me go now Asuka?" Asuka's hard glare fell on him and his self respect dropped a notch. "Dood."

Smiling in satisfaction for once again making her slave know his place, Asuka dropped the bird rather haphazardly. "Now don't you go getting into mischief, because I'll know about it." Turning back to Shion an evil idea popped into her head, 'maybe I can play with this one a little.' Taking Shion by the arm, Asuka lead her towards the woman's restroom, Shion looked slightly puzzled but knew better than to question the princess of hell. "Shion-san, I actually have a different costume, but I want your opinion on it, could you do that for me?"

Her danger sense started to tingle, every fiber of her being cried at her to run from the young girl. 'Asuka being so polite and nice…something has to be wrong,' Shion was right to think, but to kind hearted to deny the girl her request. Nice and secluded in the women's lavatory Shion braced herself for whatever Asuka had planned. "So what about this other costume of yours?" she asked not wanting to know.

Locking the door, Asuka could feel the fear radiating from the good scientist. "Close your eyes while I change ok?" Sure it was like shooting fish in a barrel, but it was fun. As Shion did as she was asked, Asuka donned her first costume choice. Her body turned green and bulgy as she extended and grew in size. Her eyes turned a balefully and puss colored yellow. Her voice still held the same humanity as she said, "Ok open your eyes." Shion opened her eyes and failed her SAN roll as she witnessed the full insanity causing form of Cthulhu and fainted dead away. As she looked at the body, Asuka huffed and reverted to her human form. "It's no fun when they pass out so fast."

X- Cthulhu costumes, be the life of the party as everybody else dies -X

He lived for this night, this chance, and for all those lovely lovely ladies. Slicking his hair back and undoing the first two buttons of his white dress shirt he took the stage. "You know what to do Shigeru," he said in a voice more confident than normal. It was a voice that was smooth yet caring, powerful yet gentle, and it was going to rock the party. Fuyutski's smile was nearly as large as Asuka's at that point. The karaoke screen was turned off and only a base line music CD was put in, he needed no words to read, he knew them.

Shigeru paled as Kozo picked his song and took the stage, after Makoto's disastrous attempt at wooing the crowd nobody had dared try again. "Its all ready sir, just be careful out there." Once the tones started to play, Shigeru ran like a bat out of hell. His girlfriend was in the crowd and he didn't want her to run across Shinji, Shigeru'd seen how the women reacted to that and wanted no part of it. He spotted the young Ikari in the crowd actually dancing with Attim. 'Odd I thought M-Zak didn't want him to know she existed, maybe since it's a costume party.'

Kozo felt electric. Filling his lungs with a big breath he set into his song. "Oh baby! Yeah! Spy on me baby use satellite. Inferred to see me move through the night!" Several men looked at the man singing Tom Jone's 'Sex Bomb' in perfect English, they thought he was a mad man. But that was until they noticed the women looking at him. He continued, "Aim, gonna fire, shoot me right! I'm going like the way you fight!" Kozo started to sway his shoulders and gyrate his hips, men feared the old man had lost it and might even break a hip. Again however the crowd of women by the stage started to grow, and their cat calls weren't negative.

"Now you know the code I use to wash away my lonely blues!" Kozo clutched the mic hard and leaned over looking adoringly into one of his impromptu fans eyes, the woman squeal like a teenager and fainted backward. Further away from the scene Shinji was having a fun time dancing with the unknown woman who had insisted he ditch Tira and Chocolate as they went to use the facilities. "So I can't deny or lie 'cos you'r the only one to make me fly! You know what you are, you are a…"

Aoi Sakuraba flanked Shinji's side and pulled him away bashfully from the provocative dancing Attim was flashing in Shinji's face. Shinji looked at the pink ears on the usually timid girl's head, Attim pulled on his other arm as he was distracted form her performance and didn't want to waste the one night she could be with her love. Kozo kept on singing "Sexbomb sexbomb, yeah, you're a sexbomb uh, huh. You give it to me when I need to come along, give it to me!" Women now started screaming Kozo's name and herding towards the stage to hear him sing 'to them.'

Shinji panicked as Attim looked angrily at Aoi yet hungerly at him, but he misunderstood that look. Putting up his hands and trying to calm the women, Misato jumped up from behind him, wrapped her arms possessively around his neck and pulled him into a close hug. "Sexbomb sexbomb, uh, you're MY sexbomb and baby you can turn me on, baby you can turn me on. You know what you're doing to me don't you. HA HA! I know you do!" Shigeru was called back into keep women off the stage and stopping the performance, women were just going insane while men looked on afraid while wives and girlfriends attacked the old crooner.

Pulling desperately to get out of Misato's grip before Aoi had a heart attack, Attim stole a murderous glance at Misato before fleeing, Shinji panicked. Aoi was yelling at Misato to keep from strangling her fiancé, a word that flew over Misato's head as many women could make the same claim, and another one did show up. Sasami dressed as Tsunami, well not really dressed but really did come as Tsunami as the goddess wanted private time with her fiancé as well walked onto the dance floor with a padre of desperate men hitting on her. "No don't get me wrong ain't gonna do you no harm, no. This bomb's made for lovin' and you can shoot it far. I'm your main target come and help me ignite! Love struck holding you tight! Hold me tight darlin'" Kozo pulled a lucky woman onto the stage and did a parody of trying to hug the woman, who was blushing bright read and smiling as if she ate the cat that ate the canary.

Aoi and Sasami gave hateful glares at one another, being the only two officially announced betrothals, the others were still being hidden, they instinctively hated each other with a passion only somebody from Nermia could fathom. While the younger girls' were distracted Misato started pulling the blushing Shinji off to a secluded corner, they needed privacy for this. "Make me explode although you know the route to go to sex me slow, slow baby!" Misato heard the women crying and the words sank into her head, slow was good.

Rei and Ritsuko however in matching cat suits didn't agree with Misato and set on her with claws of doom and leather tails of pain. His back to the corner, Shinji looked on in fear that another insanity causing agent had been given to the women of Tokyo-3 but this time he didn't have his tranquilizer gun. Kos-Mos on sensing his fear, rushed to him as fast as her princess costume would allow, Shion had picked it out for her. "And yes, I must react to claims of those who say that you are not all that, huh huh huh," Kozo was in the groove and loving it.

Holding Shinji's hand tightly, Kos-Mos made to run out of the party and return to their room and finally get to what Asuka said was the prize. A night of long, sweaty, pleasing taming. What that mean Kos-Mos had a speculation and wanted to try, but as she saw the door she felt her Master's arm was lighter than expected, he'd been taken from her and replaced with a fake arm. Her eyes turned blue at the audacity of humans. "SexBom sexbomb, well, you're a sexbomb. You can give it to me when I need to come along. Sex bomb sexbomb, yeah you're MY sexbomb, WOW"

The entire front of the stage was now filled with women throwing articles of clothing at the man who swayed with the music and gyrated his pelvis the words. Fuyutski's female appeal was starting to make the men wonder if maybe just maybe Shinji was his child instead. "And baby you can turn me on, turn me on darlin'. Sexbomb sexbomb, uh uh, you're my sexbomb and baby you can turn me on."

Looking at his savor/captors Shinji bowed politely to his nurse friend Kyoshi Nakamura and her mentor one Kurumi Mizuno. They wore what at first looked like their work attire, yet on closer inspection found much of the material was missing. Their smiles were not soft or friendly, no they found the prize. "You can give me more and more counting up the score. You can turn me upside down inside out. You can make me feel the real deal! I can give it to you any time because you're mine! Ouch, ouch, sexbomb aw baby!"

As Kurumi asked Shinji to help fix her costume they were spotted, not by one party, but all parties. Slowly the started circling around the trio. Rei holding Misato's tiara in her mouth, her victory prize, Kos-Mos held the fake arm like a weapon, Shion had a wrench in her hand, Asuka's fingers were burning, and Misato's haggard face could have froze water. "Sexbomb sexbomb you're my sexbomb and you can give it to me when I need to be turned on. And baby you can turn me on…baby you cant turn me on!" Dropping the mic Kozo stood with his head down and arms up in a 'Y' formation, women crying out for more.

But as Kozo bent to reclaim his mic, and the women claim Shinji over from the other harpies a shrill screamed pierced the room. "TENTACLE MONSTER!" The entrance exploded as an undulating red and green ball of tentacles rolled into the room. Women instinctively clutched their clothing tighter against their bodies crying out for justice. Panic and mayhem followed as everybody made for the exits as quickly as possible. Shinji lead the those that loved him to the closest viable exit and stayed until the last of them were out. 'I won't let that thing hurt any of them!' he would protect them as he loved them as well as he loved all.

Had they not been worried about their safety any one of those women would have taken him into their arms at that moment but…fear forced them to run. Nobody wants to be the victim of one of those things. Kozo at finding seven of his fan club cowering by him forced them to link hands. "Come with me to the commanders office, we'll be safe there!" They complied and they all ran after him to the safety of Gendo's office.

Not five minutes after the 'tentacle monster' erupted into the room had passed before only the beast remained. Washu took off her mask and looked at her costume. "Guess this was a little much wasn't it." Aisha just nodded, she didn't like being four of the tentacles but Washu was being strict with her and keeping her away from Shinji until she could be reprogrammed not to love him as Kos-Mos did. "Oh well, Happy Halloween Shinji!" She called to her eventual in-law as he was the only person left in the room with her.

X- So Washu's tastes in costumes is extreme –X

Rubbing his sore head, Gendo finally worked the last of the knots off and headed to his office for some much needed sleep. 'It had to be a dream…one really odd dream,' he laughed forcibly at the thought his wife had come back from Unit-01 and knew about all his sleeping around. Opening the door to his office and stepping in, his heart nearly stopped. "WHAT THE HELL IS THIS!"

A large pile of clothing lay strewn about his office and in the center was a very tired looking Kozo and a small army of women. "Told you Tom Jones works better than Rick James," the older man said between gasps, it had been a long night of 'protecting' his fan club. Gendo just walked back out of his office, shut the door and cried. He'd been beaten again by that damn old man. Next year, next year he would be the one that got all the girls!

X-Not likely, well that's it for this one! –X

Author notes

Yeah its kinda a song fic in the middle but I just saw it playing out like that. I thought it flowed better for them not to talk while everybody was fighting for him, I mean I can only write 'don't touch him, he's mine' so many times before my keys break .

Well hope you liked this oddity of a Halloween special and have a save and happy Halloween. As this is a special no updated battle lines or omake. I'll save that for the next 'real' chapter.

Ja mata!

Zentrodie


	21. Pity the cleaners

Standard Disclaimer!

Wow its been a little while since I updated this story, sorry about that but this is a side-story for me. I work on this when I don't have any concrete plans for my other stories, and if you hadn't noticed I'm sort of co-writing "A Past to Forget" with Mercaba.

Well if you like this little joke story of mine you're in luck as after I finish this one I start working on the X-mas special! So that's something to look forward to.

X- Hell hath no fury like a bride scorned, just watch Kill Bill –X

What we make of it

Chapter – 20 The Big Day

-or-

You've never partied until you party with Goddesses

She felt warm and safe. Her whole body was incased in a soothing heat and she couldn't keep herself away from. Urd could feel herself walking up but reluctantly. She was so at peace with the pillow in her arms. It was an odd pillow as it wasn't soft but firm, and oh so tantalizingly warm. Wrapping her legs around the pillow as it squirmed in her grip she sensed something off about her bedding, it emanated power unlike anything she'd felt before. "Urd…Urd are you awake?" she heard Belldandy ask sweetly.

"Go 'way," she slurred and buried her head further into her pillow sensing something else that she hadn't thought a piece of material would have, a soul. The power was intoxicating as she felt it flowing into her body, the soul was oddly familiar. It was timid and peaceful like Keiichi's yet possessed sadness and a lower hiding anger that she knew her sister's soon-to-be husband lacked. "Sleeping," she added as she buried her head into Shinji's neck.

'Oh dear Kami-sama what's happening,' Shinji thought as his body went ridged. He had just woke at the auto-club from the oddest dream he'd ever had only to blink and find himself in Urd's loving embrace. And while Shinji had become slightly used to women, he was no where near ready for a have semi-naked woman with assets the size of Misato's smashed against his body, then to have said woman start bucking softly against his, wrap her legs around him, and finally bury her face in his neck. He was slightly off his game to say the least, add to that the room was a scene from any normal adolescent boy's dreams. All of the attendee's to the bacholete party save Skuld, who was dressing in her room, and Belldandy, who was smiling politely at them, were sleeping in various states of dress all around him. 'I'm going to die when they start waking up.'

Walking over to her sister and the cute boy that she knew would make a good partner for her sister, Belldandy kneeled down. "How are you doing this morning Ikari-san, did you sleep well?" A kind smile and her welcoming eyes calmed most of Shinji's fears of emanate death. "Will you need a ride to the ceremony or do you have your own transportation?" Belldandy didn't question why or how Shinji had returned to the tea room, or why he was currently Urd's sleeping buddy. Such things happen, and if Skuld didn't like Shinji and was just experiencing a 'wedding high' Urd seemed willing to take him up.

Trying to ignore the shapely body pressed against his, the wandering hands and legs, and the hot breath against his neck, Shinji nodded to Belldandy. "I'm sorry to intrude, but I really don't know how I got here or how I was going to get to the wedding. It's not too much trouble is it?" Pain filled groans and the rustling of pajamas alerted the two conversing that the other party goers were starting to wake.

"No trouble at all Ikari-san, you can ride with Skuld, Urd, and myself to the ceremony. It'll give you a chance to better get to know my sisters. They both seem a little lonely as of late and maybe you can help." Belldandy ended by blushing and setting her hand against her cheek as Urd fell back asleep and started moving. What Urd was dreaming will remain a mystery but her actions however won't be, as she removed one of her hands and pulled down the rest of her nightie letting her sizable bosom press against Shinji's exposed chest. "Oh my, maybe I should wake her, we can't be slowed by such things right now, and we have to make haste."

"What the hell is going on, URD!" Shinji recognized that voice as Misato's post-beer voice. Apparently seeing Shinji and Urd in such an amorous position had worked wonders on bringing Misato up to speed. The hangover induced headache forgotten the instant the purple haired woman heard a lusty moan escape the bronze Goddess, Misato was quickly on her feet and prying Shinji out of Urd's grasp. Once freed of his confines, Shinji saw Urd draw in on herself forming a small ball, a noticeable frown on her face. Misato's frown however was more pronounced. "Shin-chan, what have I told you about sleeping with women like that, about sleeping with women at all!"

"But I…she…" Shinji stammered as more of the women started to wake. Rei was busy wiping sleep from her eyes, Sasami was pulling her hair back into its ponytails, Asuka…well Asuka was still wide eyed and drooling while looking vacant, and as of yet none of them had seen him. Shinji's heart nearly broke as he saw Misato's hurt expression, thinking he upset her by being perverted, the real reason was Misato wanted to be in Urd's place, his eyes fell to the floor. "I'm sorry Misato-san. I didn't mean to. It just sort of happened."

Pulling both Misato and Shinji into a big hug, Belldandy was overjoyed to see the two make amends. "Isn't that sweet Misato, Shinji-kun thinks you're upset with him and apologized," Belldandy's honeyed words didn't work on Misato as they did Shinji. While the boy was placated and calmed, Misato knew Belldandy well enough to understand the hidden meaning of her words. Misato knew Belldandy sensed her feelings for Shinji, now if she was supportive or not wasn't known. "Now I'm sure you two would like a moment to yourselves but we must move now." Gently prying Misato's hands away from Shinji, they had dropped lower on his body, Belldandy added, "And I think Urd would object to any such delay as well."

Clapping her hands together lightly Belldandy looked at the mass of women on the floor. "Everybody up!" At the command even Kos-Mos and Megumi snapped to full alertness from their deep slumber. "We don't have a lot of time so everybody change now!" Again unable to resist the power infused Goddesses wishes all non-Norn's started pulling off clothing and reaching for their wedding cloths at an insane pace. Shinji did his best to keep his eyes closed, but when it came time for him to take off his jeans and put on his slacks, a few of the girls finally noticed he was there.

Standing in only his boxer shorts, Shinji at Belldandy's command had started doing what the girls had, except his clothing was neatly folded back at the Nekomi-tech auto clubhouse. "Um…Belldandy-san…my cloths?" Tilting his head back so he wouldn't be tempted to violate the women's privacy, Shinji sought out Belldandy. His cheeks burning with embarrassment, Shinji couldn't help but see a few of the taller women who by now knew he was there but didn't turn away from him. Misato, blushing slightly, was jumping a little bit, odd how she was putting on a shirt not pants. Kos-Mos was inching her way closer to him, and the woman who had hugged him in her sleep was openly staring at him.

"Oh, I'm sorry Ikari-san, I'll get you're cloths in a moment ok?" Belldandy said bashfully as she fled the room of changing women, and semi-naked male. Urd's gaze was leveled on Shinji as she thought back to her dream. It couldn't really have been that boy she was holding could it? But he was the only being save the alien that was near that powerful.

Before Urd could make her move, or put on a top for that matter, Kos-Mos had finished dressing and was freed of Belldandy's mental control. "Shinji-sama I've missed you so much!" her voice, where before it had been slightly emotional, was now freed of its computer counterpart and overflowing with joy. Throwing herself at Shinji's torso, Kos-Mos forgot about the weight differential and soon found herself laying on Shinji's chest as they both fell crashing to the ground. "You should have told me you were going to be here Master, I'd have waited up for you!"

Next to free herself of the mental control of the blushing Goddess of questionable temperament, Sasami was quick to rush the pile of limbs on the ground. Having had a nasty nightmare in which her betrothal to Shinji was cancelled and she had to watch Shinji and his new wife, oddly enough it was Misato, on their wedding night, Sasami wasn't in the best moods. "Let go of my fiancé you overgrown can opener!" Sasami said in very unlady like tones. Grabbing one of Kos-Mos's arms and pulling on the now mostly human girl, Sasami was shocked when Kos-Mos did in fact become dislodged from Shinji and soon Sasami was underneath Kos-Mos as momentum carried the two, their skulls colliding with a loud conk.

"Kos-Mos, Sasami are you both alright?" Shinji asked propping himself up into an inclined position. Both girls' heads wobbled around like balls on springs as they tried to recover from knocking their heads together. Taking the hand offered to him, Shinji was helped to his feet, while still looking at the pile of long blue hair. "Thanks…REI!" Shinji shouted the last word into the albino's face as he wasn't prepared for his helper to be clad only in a bra and leggings. "Why are you dressed like that?" Moving his eyes skyward again Shinji waiting for the calls of 'pervert' and 'hentai,' he was an undressed male in the presence of many unclad females.

Blushing softly at Shinji's comment, Rei looked around the room finding most of the women in similar states of dress and then looked down self-consciously at herself. Realizing she was significantly smaller in certain places. "As with all the women here, and yourself I might add, we are dressing for the wedding but I wished to help you to your feet." How Rei had overrode Belldandy's command to help Shinji, Misato wanted to know, because at the moment she couldn't even speak for herself only abide Belldandy's wish to have them ready for the wedding. "Now if you'll forgive me I must finish dressing now…but if you'd zip my back up when the time comes I'd be appreciative."

Now getting to their feet, Sasami and Kos-Mos scowled at having not thought of that themselves. "Now Shinji-kun, could you _do_ me?" Misato said seductively as she turned her back to Shinji and pulled her hair away from the zipper at her back. Urd just continued to watch the whole thing as Shinji's face nearly burst and Sasami screamed about how impolite that was, Kos-Mos was about to leap at the woman when Belldandy walked back into the room, that stopped the semi-human very fast.

Watching Shinji pull the zipper up, very hesitantly one might add and without looking, Belldandy smiled faltered slightly. She hadn't expected so many strings of fate to be attached to the boy Urd or Skuld would be with if her mother had anything to do with it. "Why isn't that nice of you Ikari-san, but I think it would be best if you came with me to dress and leave these girls to their privacy. Yes?" All the girls went to say 'no' but oddly couldn't find the air to speak, Belldandy's eyes lanced them with such fear that they had to fight to keep their bladders in check. "Such a kind boy you are Shinji, may I call you that?"

Unable to deny the beautiful woman Shinji just nodded, "I'm sorry for being in there, I don't know why they didn't notice me. You're not angry are you?" He could see why she would be, why all of them would be, but Belldandy just shook her head and handed Shinji his cloths before ushering him into Skuld's room. A slight eep emitted from Shinji's lips as Skuld had just finished dressing and Belldandy locked the door. "I…I'm sorry but your sister insisted I get changed in here…do you know how to tie a tie?" Skuld fought to keep her blush down, and barely succeeded as she watched the boy put on his suit and did his tie for him. All the while her mind was saying that maybe her sister's weren't joking when they said they'd help her with him.

X-All that skin and it was just the pre-show -X

Watching the countless people pouring into the tiny chapel, Peorth was starting to have second thoughts about her plan. "Mara are you sure this is the right way to ruin the wedding and score Keiichi for myself?" Pulling on her one of her earrings, Peorth could have sworn she'd seen her grandmother's human form walking into the church not minutes ago.

Mara didn't care if it was what Peorth wanted, she was going to ruin the damn Norn's wedding come hell or high water, hell however was standing around the corner and watching, and Hild wasn't happy. "Now flower girl I don't know what you were expecting, but if you're going to ruin a Goddesses wedding you need a monster to do it!" Mara's hair waved as she thrust her head forward in her scream.

Peeking in the door and looking at the guests talking to one another in hushed voiced, Peorth couldn't fathom the sheer multitude of people that had shown up for Belldandy's wedding. 'Damn Grandma's favorite gets all the blessings!' Peorth cursed Kanako's favoritism of Belldandy. And nobody save those watching the live feed and Kanako knew of the hidden camera's playing to both a heavenly and hellish audience. "And look at that dress," Peorth scoffed as she pointed at Belldandy who stood down the steeps of the church looking up at them smiling.

True the real dress was a smoldering pile of ashes by now, but the demonically infused replica was a total duplication. Frills and taffeta in excess, layers upon layers of gown, and such a pearly white color as to reflect even sound and radiation not just light. But given time that dress would inhale guests by the droves, eat them and after the wedding ended nobody would be left, Belldandy would be the last victim as the dress at its wearer leaving Keiichi to the waiting arms of Peorth to console him. Maya smiled as she thought of that little double cross, 'Damn flower Bitch thinks it's just going to eat Belldandy, well sucks to be her when this is all over.'

Feeling the hate and anger pouring out of the Goddess, Mara's spine tingled pleasantly at the onset of emotion. "You're one evil bitch you know that, ruining a persons wedding so you can score her husband. You'd make a great demon, want to change sides?" Mara smiled sickly as she held her door open. That was another thing that pissed off Peorth, with all the duties at a wedding, why had Belldandy just given her door duty!

"I'm doing this because Belldandy got to much for free in her life, it's not fair! Father coddled her and grandma smothered her with blessings and favors. And even her sisters never say a bad word about her. What makes her so damn special?" Peorth's door handle snapped under the pressure the Goddess of the Roses applied on it. While Peorth ranted, Mara just stuck her finger down her throat in mock disgust. Everybody knew it was just plain jealousy that fueled Peorth's engine and a healthy dose of lust for one mortal Keiichi Morisato.

Sneaking up behind Peorth as only the CEO of hell can do, Hild lightly drummed her fingers along Peorth's shoulders. "My my my, isn't it just the cutest wedding dress you've ever seen." Hild's words while filled with a light and happy energy where weighted down with power. Peorth's skin crawled at the thought of being touched by such a powerful demon, and fear of being discovered.

Covering her mouth with her hand, Peorth let out a forced laugh. "Why you're so right Hild-sama," even Peorth wasn't stupid enough to backtalk Hild, now. "Belldandy looks so lovely in her wedding dress." Turning to face the most powerful demon, Peorth felt her eyes fill with water as the look Hild was giving her was more than predatory. "I…I didn't know you were coming to the wedding."

Turning Peorth back around to look at the female half of the wedding party, Hild rested her chin at where Peorth's neck met her shoulders, her hair and binding jewelry lightly touching Peorth's skin sending cold waves of terror into the pit of the Goddess's stomach. "I was talking about my Urd-chan, but you're right Belldandy looks nice. As for my coming…well I wanted it to be a surprise for my daughter, we so seldom see one another. It'd be a shame if something happened to ruin my daughter's fun, don't you agree?"

Panic stricken, Peorth tried to find Mara to help come up with a cover, but found the other door vacant and closed, Mara had abandoned her. How much did Hild know and did it matter really? The demon had been programmed to go off the instant the wedding ended, it wouldn't matter that the two wed Keiichi would be a widow soon after, but if Hild knew that could spell trouble. "You're SO right Hild-sama, it would be tragic if something happened." Hild's arm dropped from Peorth's shoulders and wrapped snugly around her neck. The Goddess was near ready to flee.

Giggling rumbled from Hild's sealed lips the tinkling of bells had the situation not been so severe. "Don't you know it honey. I do say I say if anybody DID have plans on ruining this day they'd find I'm not a very nice woman to know, but you have nothing to worry about right?" Slapping Peorth's face with no real power, a playful cat like pawing, Hild could feel the fear oozing out of Peorth, and she drank it in. "Well if you excuse me I sense a power greater than mine and it isn't mother-in-law so…today might be a double wedding if it's a man. It's been a long time since I married and I just _love_ powerful men"

Peorth felt Hild's fingers trailing down her back as the CEO of hell walked into the church with a content smile on her face. Suppressing a shudder, Peorth forced her smile back on as she noticed the wedding march start to play, it was show time. Taking a moment to check on Hild, she saw the demon taking a seat next to a petite black haired woman yet looking intently on the young boy up at the front of the church walking her way down to them, she wasn't sure but she was almost positive Hild looked disappointed yet happy. 'Not your type eh Hild-sama,' Peorth thought happily.

The music picked up volume as the first of the bridesmaids, Skuld, entered the foyer and linked hands with the boy and turned back towards the front of the church. It was then that Peorth noticed why Hild looked disappointed; the look on Skuld's face as well as Urd's was amorous, puppy dog eyes, at the boy. They felt something for him and Hild was going to step aside it seemed. The rest of the wedding party was far from happy looking. The men wore cheap suits and even faker smiles as they tried to 'accidentally' tried to cop a feel of their partner while the women seemed to want to kill said partner. 'Guess only Skuld got a decent man on this one.'

Aside from one girl that Peorth new was a demon, and Hild confirmed it by calling out 'hello daughter-in-law' only to have the absent minded girl walk mindlessly down the aisle and stand puppet like in place, nothing went wrong with the first half of the ceremony. The trouble occurred when after the priest started talking about vows the lights started to flicker and finally went out. A power outage during the wedding! A general murmur swept through all the guests. The heavenly attendants could feel the presence of one of their younger brethren. The Nerv employees got a frantic phone call just before the power went out.

Before anybody could act however, Belldandy shocked everybody by calmly saying. "One moment please, I must use the restroom," and ran off. Nobody dared move at that, even Kanako was on edge, the young angels often caused a lot of damage if left uncheck. However the lights turned back on moments before Belldandy walked back into the church, she tossed a crumpled napkin into a waste basket, had anybody looked at it they would have seen a mutilated corpse of a spider like creature yet the napkin was stained blue and orange. Belldandy, if asked, would have simply said her younger sister hadn't been invited to the wedding and should have stayed home.

X- That's one way to kill an angel –X

This first sign of excess was when a separate limousine was chartered for each pair of the wedding party. The second sign was when the limos parked outside one of the most famous convention halls in all of Toyko-3 with a plackard outside saying it was closed for the day, and the last sign was when the wedding party entered, greeted by so many well wishers that Shinji wondered if they hadn't invited the whole city, they saw the wedding cake. The cake was five hundred pounds, reached from floor to ceiling, the ceiling being two stories into the air, and had killed three crewmen carrying it inside.

Skuld's hand in his, Shinji lead the wedding party through a floral arch, stopping for photos, to the main table. His face was on fire, not from embarrassment, but the sheer number of flashbulbs going off in rapid succession. Whispering softly in Skuld's ear, causing her to almost faint, "How many friends do they have?" He also wondered how much film they had, as Belldandy and Keiichi had yet to even enter the building. 'I wish I was this popular,' he thought, totally unaware that he almost was.

With Shinji leaning over next to her to hear her response better, Skuld nearly lost it. Her face was full red, her chest hurt with how little air was filling her lungs. Her reply was a whisper by necessity not of want. "Sister has a lot of…foreign friends that where invited, and Keiichi has been oddly magnetic since he and sister started dating." Reality was Kanako allowed inter dimensional travel for this one day only and the Heavens flocked down to earth for it.

While Shinji and Skuld took their places side-by-side at the front table, and Rei had to resist AT Fielding the goddess out of her seat, Belldandy and Keiichi were exiting the limo. The first man to be enfolded by Belldandy's dress had been the limo driver. The door opened and as Belldandy stepped out and turned to her now husband, the layers wrapped around the unseen man and pulled him in. "Kei-chan, I can't believe it we're finally married!" Belldandy squealed as she helped Keiichi out of the limo with one hand and was lovingly gazing at her wedding band on the other.

A touch overwhelmed by the feeling of finally being wed himself, Keiichi just blushed and locked his arm with Bell's. "You've made me the happiest man alive Bell-chan, you know that right?" They started walking up the red-velvet carpet towards the opened doors where their guests awaited them. Unknown to the pair, several lower-class god's and goddesses ran up to greet them from behind only to be the dresses next victim. "No Kei-chan, that comes later tonight," blushing softly Belldandy leaned over and whispered into Keiichi's ear, he was red in the face until he sat down at the table, his mind officially blown.

A rowdy cheer erupted from the assembled crowd as Belldandy and Keiichi took hands and bowed to them and sat. It was true that they no longer had a chance with either of them, but deep down those who sought them knew they'd lose. After the cheers died down it was time for the food! Kanako spared no expense in that department, summoning the souls of the greatest chefs of all time to cook their specialties, and yes the Iron Chefs where there. Misato, Rei, Kos-Mos, and Sasami had little appetite as they fumed and glared at Skuld sharing her food with Shinji. Asuka was sitting numbly in her seat, staring blankly forward her mind just now starting to recover from the Hell she had seen.

The DJ playing happy music the guests all dived into the food and the happiness content was high. Well for most, some had opted to sample the open bar and drown their sorrows for being unwed, dismissed by either Keiichi or Belldandy, or simple hatred of weddings Misato was one of those attending the bar. "Stupid lil kid thinks she can take ma Shin-chan…hell if I'd let 'er," she slurred as the alcohol took swift affect on her mind.

Not quite as wanting to be a blubbering drunk, Urd sipped her saki as compared to Misato's chugging. "What are you talking about Misa-chan? Some girl out there with an ex of yours?" She patted the drunken Misato's shoulder supportively, Urd knew all about the pains of ex-boyfriends. While Urd tried to sooth Misato's irritated aura, something came by that by existing irritated hers.

"Urd-chan give momma a hug!" Hild chirped as she wrapped her arms in a human killing hug. While being a Goddess gave Urd enough strength to survive the loving embrace, it still hurt like a bitch. "Oh is this your girlfriend Urd-chan, been a while sine I had a female lover too," she cooed in Misato's direction. Being the master of causing trouble and pain that Hild was, she doubted her words as she said them. 'Urd's to much a prude to fully enjoy the experience of female lovers.'

Gripping the saki bottle firmly around its neck, Misato twirled on her stool and had to reach out with her free hand to keep from falling off. "Who…who are you miss star head Japan or something? Huh? You going to say I'm to old too, zat it, HUH?" Misato screamed into the face of the CEO of Hell. The reek of booze and half eaten food flooding out of her mouth, just as foul as her mind at the moment.

Wiping off the spittle, Hild just smiled and ignored Misato's outburst. "You're friend seems to have drank a little to much, maybe you two want to go somewhere and…work it off?" If it was Hild's smile, her way of speaking, or subtle hip gyration Urd couldn't tell, all she knew was that she was very uncomfortable being around her mother. "Maybe you need mother's help?"

The man, Tamiya, who had been drunkenly gazing at the bronze goddess heard a loud snap, it was Urd's brain. Urd wanted to stay with Misato, hear what her friend's trouble was, and maybe help out but couldn't. "Mom that's gross, I…I'm going to go check on Skuld. Sorry Misa-chan but I'll see you later." Running away as fast as her dress would allow, Urd missed the lazy wave Hild gave her and the sick smile of success on her face.

"So Misato Katsuragi, if we might have a word about that ward of yours and my daughter-in-law?" Hild closed in on her prey. While Hild loved her daughter, and loved playing with her, it was her real goal to learn about the boy with such power that mortals weren't supposed to possess. True he was powerful enough for her to wish to wed; she'd have preferred he be older, bigger. But he might do well for her daughter, and this nice drunk lady was going to fill in the gaps her surveillance lacked, and blackmail to use against her daughter-in-law who had filled the vassal allocation form already.

It was unfortunate for Urd that the first person she ran into as she fled her mother was Belldandy. To be more specific she ran into Belldandy's back and was drawn into the folds of the dress with a small yelp. Bell turned to see what had hit her, and again found nothing. "That was the tenth time that happened," she said absently, "Now what was it you wanted to as me Sasami-kun?"

The pig-tailed goddess rubbed her eyes daintily, having sworn she just saw a woman vanish. "Belldandy-san, what does it feel like, being married that is? I'm engaged now but a lot of other women seem to want to break up the wedding." At that Belldandy turned to her husband, whispering to him then Sasami saw him nod to which Belldandy kissed his cheek and took Sasami's hand. "What…what's going on?"

Leading the troubled young girl through the crowd of guests, absorbing no less than five of them, Belldandy made her way back up to the empty main table before sitting down. "I thought it would be best if we had a place to talk in relative peace. You look like you could use a kind ear at the moment and I'd happily lend you mine." Belldandy wanted her wedding to be peaceful, not have Sasami freak out and start crying or attacking other guests. "Now what seems to be the trouble dear?"

Balling her fists on her lap, Sasami looked down. How could she ask the sister of one of her rivals about Shinji? Easy she'd mask the situation as often done, unsuccessfully. "I'm afraid that it's not worth all the trouble. I mean I love my fiancé fully, but with so many better women trying to win his heart it's only a matter of time until one of them steals him from me. I just wanted to know how it actually felt to be a bride." Sniffing back Sasami felt it hard to keep her tears at bay. Shinji has exceeded all her expectations of a truly loving husband, and she wanted to be his bride, but with so much competition it was pointless.

In true Belldandy fashion, the Goddess smiled warmly, cupped Sasami's chin in her palm and lifted the sad girls head. "Dear, you're a lovely and charming young lady. You needn't feel insecure with yourself. Being married means nothing unless you love your spouse. I love my Kei-chan with all of my heart, and he me. If you feel strongly enough for this man in your heart he will know it, feel it, and reciprocate it. Go to him now if you wish and tell him your feelings." Had Belldandy been able to read the major Goddesses mind she'd have told her to abandon such feelings, but as she was only a minor Goddess in comparison sent Sasami off to confess to Shinji.

While Sasami rushed through the throng of dancing couples looking for Shinji, Kos-Mos felt like biting her arm off in lieu of listening further to her companion talking. "That is indeed interesting Morisato-kun, but I fail to see its relevance to myself." Trying to be polite, Shinji preferred such things, Kos-Mos didn't walk away from Megumi as the young woman talked ad-nausea about robotics. 'Why do humans believe that since I am mostly cybernetic that I find robotics interesting? Do they enjoy detailed discussions about their failed construction?'

Oblivious to Kos-Mos's agitation Megumi continued on with her logic. "I'm just saying that if you remove what biological components in your design you could become so much more powerful! I mean what use is being 'part-human' anyway when you could be fully cybernized?" Sipping on her champagne, Megumi missed the disgusted look that crossed her companions face.

"I like being human and having human emotions," Kos-Mos admitted. Having such a short time to get used to her new-found humanity she realized quickly that she enjoyed it better than having all her actions based on pure logic. "I could ask you the same question in a sense, why do you want and allow yourself to be controlled by emotions when logic would dictate another course of action?" Oh how Kos-Mos wanted to turn her arm into her R-Scythe at that moment and remove Megumi's voice box, the audacity of the woman to say she would be better off without emotions.

Waving her empty glass in the air signaling for Peorth, who was happily given a new job, for a refill. "Guess I didn't see it that way, but are emotions really that good. I mean look at half of the guests here? They loved my brother or Belldandy a lot and now they have to deal with the rejection. Is that a good thing?" Wobbling on weak legs, Megumi was slow to realize that alcohol slowed reaction time and fell to the ground. "Drinking sucks."

'If Shinji-sama rejects me…would it be better to not know the feeling?' Kos-Mos speculated as she helped Megumi back to her feat. She hadn't considered how she'd take not being with Shinji anymore. Kotoko had taken a lot of time to create and it wasn't impossible for somebody to have stolen his heart while she created the device. "Megumi-san," dropping the informal handle as she wanted to earnestly converse with the woman, "about rejection, how does one not become it?"

Here head rocked with a bout of hiccups, Megumi laughed daintily. "Do you have somebody that you _looooove_," she drawled outward as she leaned in and bathed Kos-Mos with bad breath. Taken a step away from the drunken woman, Kos-Mos felt exposed at the question, she didn't know what love truly was but what she felt for Shinji was very powerful. Taking Kos-Mos's silence as acceptance Megumi drained her full glass, "Well if ya love da guy…be straight bou' it. Don't pla' around and just lay a big fat one on 'em!"

Following much of Megumi's drunken ramble, Kos-Mos was left with only one question, "What is a big fat one?" Megumi, to her credit, just dropped her glass that shattered on the ground. Her mouth opened and closed like a fish on dry land, who didn't know what 'a big fat one' was? Calling Peorth back over for another glass, this time something heavy, Megumi sat the confused machine human hybrid down for a little girl talk. Drunken girl talk that is, which left Kos-Mos flushed and rushing around the floor looking for Shinji, what she found was Belldandy's dress.

As the time passed, and more people were sucked into the netherworld that was Belldandy's bridal gown, fatigue and booze forced more and more of the guests to leave. Before things got to bad Belldandy politely took the microphone from the DJ, "Everybody, we'd simply like to thank all of you for all of your support and kindness over the years. Without all of you here this night wouldn't be as happy or blessed as it was," Kanako just laughed at that. Belldandy continued, "And before you all leave Keiichi and I would like to hold a 100-yen dance. If you'd like to dance with Kei-chan or myself simply get in line, put a coin in the box and we'll gladly accept you for a moment."

In response to Belldandy's decree the room exploded in excitement, who didn't want to dance with Belldandy, and the women Keiichi? The lines formed quickly and wrapped around the building. Shinji stood in Belldandy's line as Skuld stood next to him in Keiichi's. "Wow I didn't expect everybody to want to do this, are you sure I should Skuld-san, I hardly know your sister?" He had to keep his eyes slightly skewed of Skuld's face. The emotional high of the wedding had Shinji on edge, and the pleasant conversation and several slow dances with the young woman next to him had his heart all aflutter.

In a similar state, Skuld had asked Shinji to join Belldandy's line just so she could keep talking to him. "She's a very loving person Shinji-san, I think she'd like to dance with anybody here. Especially somebody that was at our home," she ended with a large smile at remembering her awkward attempts at fixing his tie. Shuffling their feet forward, Skuld caught her toe on the frills of her dress and landing her in Shinji's embrace.

"Are you ok Skuld-san, you didn't hurt yourself did you?" Shinji's voice broke several times as the feeling of Skuld's warmth through the dress was intoxicating. He knew that he hardly just meet the girl in his arms, but he couldn't help it. She was a beautiful, smart, and charming woman even if she had an inferiority complex, Kami-sama knew he had one. Was it just the wedding high, his loneliness, or something else Shinji didn't know, but he kept his arm entwined with Skuld's. "Just to make sure you don't trip again ok?"

Skuld nodded, her head to dizzy to speak, she just let him lead her. He could have taken her anywhere at that point and she'd gladly follow, luckily for the young Norn Shinji had no ill intent for her. But he did notice something odd as they neared the front of the line. "Skuld-san, look at Belldandy-san…nobody ever 'leaves' her line after they dance they just…vanish." His breath tickled her cheek; hot air blowing down the exposed nape of her neck, Skuld's mind was gone. She just nodded to his statement and saw nothing. "I think I just saw her dress…"

"Shinji-san," Sasami squeaked as she finally found Shinji three people away from dancing with Belldandy. She sneered at Skuld as the blushing Goddess just clung to Shinji's arm like a vice grip. Shinji's stern and concentrating face broke Sasami out of her growing anger. His soft yet handsome face looked more manly at the moment.

"Yes Sasami-san something you need?" Shinji didn't want to ignore his potential fiancé but something very odd was going on with Belldandy's dress and he wanted to be sure of it before he acted. Off in a corner Peorth's eyes widened as she saw Aoshima get sucked into Belldandy's dress. She had thought that since Belldandy was still alive that the dress had been subverted or cleansed, she was way off.

Drawing in a large breath, Sasami could feel each beat of her heart, the music dimmed and all was silent in her mind and body. "I love you Shinji-san," her voice was soft, all her effort resulted in only a neigh whisper, but Shinji heard it and his face went slack. It was unbelievable, unquestionably impossible, but Sasami had just said…said she loved him? Sasami saw the blush form on her fiancé's face and waited for her answer, each moment felt an eternity, but she would get no answer to her feelings that day.

Shinji's eyes were diverted from his blushing Goddess as Misato stumbled away from Keiichi and was sucked into Belldandy's dress and he had seen it. "Misato-san!" he screamed as he pushed his way passed all the drunken and hormone influxed men who blinded themselves to any such events. His shout drew the attention of all the remaining attendants, "I'm sorry Belldandy-san but I have to do this!" Belldandy looked confused as Shinji put his hands on her shoulders gathering material in his hands and yanked hard downward.

A resounding rip echoed through the hall as the dress tore and fell away from the Goddess. Something very rare occurred then, Belldandy became furious, not just mad but honest to Kami-sama homicidal. "IKARI-SAN WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" she raged as her perceived perfect wedding was ruined by the boy she had thought would end one of her sisters loneliness, now soon-to-be compost. Hild sat with a knowing smile off to the side, having sensed the dress knew that Shinji had just saved Belldandy's life.

Drawing the dress above his head and slamming it on the ground repeatedly, Shinji ignored the feeling of dread and helplessness that filled him, he had people to save. "Let go of my friends you damned lacy bitch!" Those watching felt colder for some reason and doubted the boys sanity, that was until somebody flew out of the dress, then another, and another. With each slam to the ground a body flew out of the dress, a full fifty people rolled out of the dress before the dress kicked into defense mode. The arm and neck holes grew teeth and tried to eat Shinji. "Help…somebody kill this thing," he cried as three gapping maws snapped at him and it grew in mass.

The energy bolt in her hand aimed at Shinji dissipated in her discovery of her ruined wedding crasher was in truth her savior. Nobody dared move as the shock washed over them, and that meant our hero was fighting alone. Getting to his feet Shinji's arms were wrapped by the sleeves of the dress as the neck tried to decapitate him, "Somebody please!"

It was that desperate plea that finally snapped Asuka out of her trance. Still thinking she was back at the bistro Asuka aimed at her target. "You fucking bitch, how dare you send me to that awful place! BURN FOR IT!" Summoning globes of fire in her hands, Asuka threw them at the dress wearing bitch. After the flame struck the dress which had crawled to Shinji's back in attempt to force him to the ground, Asuka saw the bra and panty clad Belldandy off to the side. 'Oh shit!'

Shinji was on fire! The dress cried out in death throws but as it burned it burned by Shinji. In one voice two Goddesses, one minor one major cried, "NO!" And the flow of time stopped. Sasami rushed to Shinji's still form as Skuld pried the dress off of him. "He's hurt bad…his back is burned badly," Sasami cried as Skuld finished off the dress and time came back into its normal flow, people only saw a blur of blue and black and saw Shinji's head cradled in Sasami's lap, but he was smiling.

Reaching up Shinji palmed Sasami's cheek, "Don't cry…they're safe now," And he fainted dead away. The party officially ended as Hild wrapped an arm around Peorth's waist and headed off into the kitchen, nobody saw them again for a long time. Belldandy did what she could to reduce the burns on Shinji's back, but was limited as to use her powers would have caused Shinji to explode due to the swell of power in him. So in the end of the wedding of the millennium one young man was hospitalized with a few second degree burns.

X- It had to happen some how-X

When he woke and didn't see the familiar ceiling of the hospital but took in the normal smell of it, Shinji knew something was off. Laying on his stomach, his head facing the window, he wondered just what had happened this time. "All I remember is stopping Belldandy-san's dress and intense heat," he muttered to himself.

Luckily for the newly appointed assistant nurse on duty, she heard him. "So that's how it happened, Shinji-san. We didn't know the cause when they brought you in," Hotaru said with relief filling her voice. Having watched Shinji sleep for the past hour, prior to that had been visiting hours and the room was packed, Hotaru thought about the boy. She still tried grappling with the odd notion that Shinji and Tiger-Cub-San had something in common but wasn't ready to make the leap of faith and assume they were the same entity.

Turning his head quickly, Shinji winced loudly as his burns ached and tore the healing flesh open. "H-Hotaru-san, what are you doing here?" He tried to hide his discomfort and pain, but his labored breathing betrayed him. Seeing the girl he had befriended in his feline form standing next to his bed in a white nurses gown, Shinji was perplexed. Usually it was the very attractive yet teasing Kyoshi at his side, but this was unexpected.

"I've decided to stop just saying I want to be a nurse and enrolled in the assistant program, and you just happen to be my first patient," she giggled behind her gloved hand. Pulling back the light sheet from Shinji's body, she saw it go tense. "Now Shinji-san, are you going to be a good patient and let me rub this ointment on your back to sooth the burn or am I going to have to have Miss Nakamura come in here and strap you down?"

As much as he wanted to stop her, the pain was rather excruciating. Resigning himself to his fate, Shinji just nodded against his pillow. "I'll be good Hotaru-san," his voice pained and strained. Closing his eyes as he saw Hotaru spin open the jar of ointment and apply a generous portion to her hands, Shinji expected an influx of pain. What he got however was not humanly possible. Belldandy's spell had made it so whatever methods of curing were applied would take a vastly greater affect.

Hotaru's slowly circling hands was a delicious mixture of bliss and relaxation. The pain in his back melted away under the gentle ministrations of the shy girl. Moaning softly into his pillow Shinji hoped Hotaru didn't take it the wrong way. She didn't as when Shinji became relaxed a latent part of his cathood that Ritsuko hadn't phased out kicked in, he started purring. Hotaru recognized it instantly and while she didn't stop her hand gestures, tears filled her eyes, tears of joy. Whispering to herself, "He is Tiger-Cub-san."

Hotaru closed her eyes and wished softly, 'I hope we can be together somehow, anyhow.' The joy he brought to her life, her new friends, and a sense of self worth she hadn't had before were all thanks to the boy under her hands that happened to look like a cat for a small time. Fortunately or unfortunately for her, based on opinion, a minor Goddess that just had the best night of copulation in existence heard her wish, and granted it. Fliers for the 'Neo Miss Tokyo-3 Pageant' appeared on billboards and sign posts through out the city.

X-Well she always wanted to be a nurse, now she has support –X

Well there you go, the Wedding is over! Hope you all liked it, little sparse on the comedy but can't all be chucks and laughs or it looses its purpose. And no the Pageant isn't the next bit I'll be writing for this story, it'll be a few chapters away. Next for WW is actually going to be my X-mas special so be thankful if you like this story cause you'll be getting another chapter fairly soon

Well that's all for me this time later

Ja Mata

Zentrodie (Zentrodie-at-secondimpact-dot-com)

Omake!

Updated Battle lines!

Those wanting a Harem: deinku, VCR, Jon Cook (w/o Asuka), mc2rpg, Positron(for now), Hank, Finalfantasyxii, chan,ken, kins of Ireland, Mordamir, Kman, Valtiel, Epsilon, ShadowCascade, EchoGarrote, Vic, Frank the Bunny (Don't chain me up!), NateGold, Gord, Slake-Sama, Zemzaba, TheWickerMan, Dark Anomaly, Bobby, (Unknown mass), Masumune, Variable Creatue, Tyson, Drake Smith, Rusty Knight, Bonta-Kun ,Production, Messiah3, WingOmega, DarkStarlkerFan (and wait), Crono10, Aladeth, Vic, Idiot564, ChronoTravel, Blood of Odin, Kman,Razial the Damned, Warden, Zang-Sama, Jizzle the uncontrollable Jazzle, NefCanuck, ChronoTravel, Andrew Joshua, JWM Talon, Dwing, Tracker, Combat, DWD, North freezing(and don't count Attim out!), Ttestagr, Migele , Shiro, Kyoshin, Soul Stealer, Exocite, Kd8gun,Secaid, Lord Anime, The Gate Keeper, Wind Omega, GrandMoffPooky, Jace, Sinthenas, Drazen Flame, Rootathell, Bandonvi, Darklion74, Berserker1, Ghost140, Shinji the Good Sharer, Matt-Kun, Master Liebchen, cevgar, HMSWhiteStar, DUO-THE-ECCHI-SASSHA, FIX82 Total: 80

Those siding with Kos-Mos: Xeo, Konos the Grey, ScienceMonkey, Nicknack, DarkChuchuo, Sybian Machine, Final Max, Crrot, Sol bandus, Pandomine, Vaurnut, NickNack, Soulless, Sleepy Kitty, Deus, renzokuken-sama, James Ray Edwards, KevinEc, a fan3, Science Monkey, Serpent Spy, Soulless, Jin Kazemeijin, Kyubi, CheeseKing, Typhon, "The Man in the Pallid Mask," Cyber Angel One, Sideris, Anomaly27, Slayer6, SickToTheGore, Tempest Destiny, Le Bete Noir, Urtv 17, Ordinary Joe, Sideris, Absu7, B52, SilentAssasinMecha, Hokage-Sama, Drakandrin, Tonberry, URTV-666, U-DO, Wings of Lead, l33t0n3, Obsessed Uber Rei, Imaginary404, KinZoku, Renzokuken-sama, rongten, Alexander-K, planket shrimp, Saint Jack, Virtigo900Education, Gkatheller, Duo, Genisyn69, Corruption, Momo, MasterBlaster, Ex-Parrot, Chapter-Com Employee 5, Leet Ninja Mon, Duo, GKathellar, elite cat brigade, The Wandering Fic Reader, Elconquestedor Total: 71

Those siding with Rei: Otaku-Dman, Vibious, SoulFire, Macavity the Mystery Cat, Dark Machine, Philg, NickNack, Azurewind, Redmage2k, Rei-aka-Ayanami-chan, jennyjennie, rgreat, Katfum, Oni-Otaku, wiseman, Crimson Arrow, Mak, Pert-kun, The Mad Shoe, Mattman65, Herder of cats, DeathScyth, Seraphy, TheCrawlingChaos, Lord Amon, Vertigo900, Ronn, Asanohoshi, Ayanami-Lover, Fanfic-addict, Rei'sGuardian, Rei-Chan Rocks, Clayfighter2000, sayianprince, Draco Ninja, Poonananwan Total: 36

Those siding with Asuka: Kusinagi, Nova10, Vibious, Final Max, Kuracao, Redshadow64, xXx, Supereva0102, Asuka-fan, SOMEBODY, Supereva01, Knighsshadow, WarpWizard, Dude, Dragon's death, Uniden, A/S Fan X 2, Edhunne, Old Foo, Deathaanimefan32l, Sledge, Soul Eva, KoalaKiller, GodSpeed, Neumann, Deatheva, bill, Lord Kain, Demgelzero, SuperEva 01-02 Total: 31

Those siding with Hotaru Tomoe: Doomed One, Dchimera, Ze Black Knight, Hotaru, Golden Kitsune, Keimythe Tiger, Urber Leet, El Captain Total: 9

Those siding with Blue haired girlsOrganized Kaos, Trikster , Kima Prideflame, Nick McC, Shinzaku, M.E.S.S, Total: 7

Those siding with Sasami: Doggystyle, razzor15, Vaurnut, Omrianh, Faoron, The Mad Shoe Total: 6

Those siding with Skuld: Goldmon X, Chao's, The GateKeeper, Player0, katyn, KTX Total: 6

Those siding with Attim M-Zak: Ender, Chibinari, C&C Music factory, Kippenberger Total 4

Those siding with Mana: Steve Vader, Chewy, Total: 3

Those siding with Yui Ikari: Education, Player 0, Korean Sage total: 3

Those siding with Shion Uzuki: Remenants, Final Max Total : 2

Those siding with Misato: Kippenberger, JVR Total: 2

Those siding with Hikari: Amathyst Wind Total: 1

Those siding with Aisha Clan Clan: Bloody Angel X Total: 1

Those siding with Chiyo: Biting Cat, Alpha Draconis1, Total: 2

Those wanting female Shinji with Gendo: Hikarino Bansei Total: 1

Those wanting me to burn in fiery hell and never update this story again: Lord Inari Total: 1

And there you have it ladies and Gentlemen! Kos-Mos is rallying her troops and is coming within striking distance of her rival the harem! While Rei continues to bludgeon the German fireball into the mat! But who is this…a dark haired goddess of the future has exploded into the field and taken out all of the lower armies and is now battling her nemesis the Goddess of Jurie!

Sides are tensing up while new comers come and go, who will win…you the reader decide who gets the max time! Wave your banners proudly, burn (not literally) the banners of your enemies or get them to side with you! Because the winner gets the most screen time! And like always three votes will get any character added to the cast! So if the lovely lady, or gentleman if you prefer, isn't in the cast yet get two friends to side with you and bang their in the running.

As for me I'm recouping from X-mas spending and need to take a lie down…whew.


	22. Fear old friends

Wow has this story been neglected for a long time. Didn't mean to but for a while I was in a small funk and then I had other projects I wanted to work on. Sadly the X-mas special had to be shelved as I don't believe in writing about seasonal events after the happened, maybe I'll get a valentines special out but have to wait and see. Hope you like this offering.

X- No excuses just plain lazy –X

What We Make of it

Chapter – 22

A Day at School

Or

Who knew he had friends

The shining sun beat down on the trio as the walked the dirty streets of Tokyo-3. Cars passed them by as motorists headed towards jobs, the children headed to their own internment camp, school. Asuka was finding it hard to suppress the smirk, "I still can't believe you did that! You really are meant to be my vassal! Only a demon would ruin a Goddesses wedding reception!"

Sasami shook her head, "Shinji-sama didn't ruin the reception he saved Belldandy-san, you ruined it when you lit him on fire!" Pumping her arms for emphasis Sasami's pigtails flailed wildly. Why she had to go to school again was a mystery to her, but Washu's plan to use school as a way of getting Sasami deeper in Shinji's heart seemed plausible. 'I bet she just wants me out of her lab so she can plan more experiments!'

His own smile subdued but present, Shinji couldn't fight the sense of peace that settled over him. "Now, now Sasami-san we both know that if Asuka-san" Asuka coughs forcibly into her hand. Seeing the baleful glare from his companions eyes Shinji corrected himself, "Asuka-chan didn't burn the dress I wouldn't have beaten it. She saved me to a degree. And that happened two weeks ago so can't we just put it behind us?"

"She lit you on fire!" Sasami contended as Asuka slinked over and wrapped a possessive arm around her vassal's waist. The vain that popped up on Sasami's temple would have made Ayeka proud. "ASUKA-SAN STOP THAT! We're on school grounds now and you should respect Shinji-san's space!" If she couldn't snuggle with Shinji nobody should be able to.

Ignoring the irritated princess, Asuka waved at the approaching class representative, who too had an irked expression at watching Asuka manhandle her would-be boyfriend. "Hikari-chan did you sign up for the Miss Teen Tokyo-3 pageant?" Disengaging her arm from Shinji, Asuka stopped to give the boy a peck on the cheek before sending him away, girl talk was no place for a vassal, neither was it proper for him to hear the trash talk that was about to begin. A girl had the right to mentally scar any contenders for competitions, And Asuka felt like doing some serious scaring before the contest.

Finally left alone with Shinji, Sasami sneaked closer to him as they approached the doorway to suffering…or the school entrance. "Seriously Shinji-sama I don't think you should encourage Asuka-san like that. She'll get the wrong idea about her relationship with you." Oh how tempted she was to wrap her arm around Shinji's but doctrine prohibited such until they were wed.

The pair walked into the foot locker area and switched shoes, noticing more than a few odd glares, Shinji turned to Sasami. "Asuka means well, she just has different customs…I think. Anyway Sasami-san do I have something on my face, the girls are all looking at me funny." Moving inches away from Sasami, Shinji saw a faint pink tinge spread on the girl's face. "Are you ok Sasami-san?"

Knowing the glares were aimed at her, Sasami just blushed as she found herself face to face with her fiancé. "I think they're just worried that you were named a judge for that contest Shinji-sama. You need to be careful of them too…they'll try to get you favor to win the contest." And to get other things from him Sasami thought but left that unvoiced.

Rubbing the bridge of his nose, Shinji couldn't shake the feeling that Sasami was becoming a worrywart. She was always saying that he needed to watching out for his safety. Be it standing guard outside the bathroom door when Misato bathed, 'to make sure she remembers to put cloths on. When Kos-Mos had her recharge period, 'to insure she doesn't suffer from a power malfunction, and whenever Rei came over Sasami would watch the albino like a hawk. "I'll try Sasami-san, but I think you need to worry about your own health and not just mine. You look a little sick, are you sure you're feeling ok?" Moving before Sasami could react Shinji leaned forward and pressed his forehead to hers.

Standing prone, Shinji's very kissable lips near millimeters away from hers, Sasami wanted to lean in the tiny distance but couldn't. As her heart thundered in her chest and her head drew light from blood redirection, the moment ended. Pulling back Shinji smiled, "You don't seem to have a fever, but don't press yourself to…oh hell." Shinji's attention was diverted by a loud stomping He recognized the approaching sound and was quick to push Sasami away from him. Rei had gotten into the Pita Ten again and a human bullet with blue hair was headed his way. '3…2…1…'

"SHINJI-KUN!" Rei yelled as she launched herself at her favorite target, that being his stomach. Flying at Shinji at a speed that would have made a sprinter jealous, Rei made contact and wrapped her arms possessively around the boy as they landed on the ground. Rubbing her cheek against his chest Rei bubbled. "I missed you Shinji-kun, why didn't you wait for me so we could come to school together…OUCH!" Sasami's thumb and forefinger firmly latched on to Rei's free check and pulled the semi-angel off Shinji's prone form.

Just a normal morning for the padre of friends. Dusting himself off and receiving no help from the jealous boys, Shinji got to his feat and headed to class as Rei and Sasami argued over the rightness of Rei's greeting. A flash of worry entered Shinji's mind, was he helping these girls out by being there? Sure they were his friends, but his heart wanted what all wanted, love. Could he hope that he could receive such from any one of them? He'd try to keep that worry from affecting him.

X- If only he knew right, but then it wouldn't be as much fun –X

"I can't believe how insane this pool has become!" Kensuke raved as the poured over the latest rankings. Sasami still was a high up bet, but some girl a grade below them named Hotaru had blasted up the rankings. "How does he do it Touji? HOW?" Kensuke's voice was rabid but his eyes were alight with a fire of pure greed. No matter who won now he would be raking in the cash.

Picking his nose idly as Shinji walked into the room and started heading over to them, "Don't know man, but I'm surprised at all the older women…maybe something in his blood or something." Not wanting to admit jealousy over Shinji's innate ability to draw upon the feelings of young ladies, Touji dismissed it. Sure Sasami, Rei, Asuka, and this Hotaru girl were in school with him so its explainable. But what had him floored and living in a constant state of denial was Misato, Kos-Mos, and the few other older women he'd noticed following Shinji. It pissed him off royally. Trying not to let his displeasure with his own failings with the fairer sex Touji welcomed Shinji warmly. "Hey Shin-man, how the burns?"

Taking his seat next to his friends, Shinji shrugged. "They don't hurt anymore, that ointment Hotaru gave me works wonders." Touji and Kensuke spared a glance at one another as a blush fell over Shinji's cheeks. While he never told anybody about Hotaru being the assistance nurse that saw him or the purring that unknown to him gave his cross-species jumping, it was still embarrassing to remember. "What were you guys talking about?"

Pushing his glasses up, Kensuke grinned, "We were wondering what our dear judge friend was going to do about his role? Wouldn't mind having the inside track as to who to bet on, or were you going to let those fine young ladies try and persuade you?" While personally Kensuke's first love was money and military technology, it was a great joy of his to antagonize Shinji. "And what the hell is that thing?"

Pulling his new companion out of his backpack and setting it down where Sumomo often sat, Shinji introduced Kos-Mos's newest creation. "This here is Kotoko, Kos-Mos made her for me because she said Sumomo was too unreliable." Turning his attention to the kimono clad, raven haired, and palm sized computer. "Kotoko this is Touji and Kensuke, my friends." Shinji still didn't realize why they were friends, but he liked having friends.

Bowing politely to the boys, Kotoko cleared her throat, which in reality served no purpose as she didn't breathe. "So you are the idiots Sumomo caught taking pictures of Shinji-sama. I would like to inform you that I will report all such transgressions to Kos-Mos-sama for review." At the tiny deadpan voice, Touji fell off his chair and started coughing hoarsely. Kensuke slammed his laptop closed and started rambling off excuses all for naught as Shinji had been distracted by Ami handing him his missed printouts.

"Did you introduce yourself to them Kotoko?" Shinji asked before noticing Kensuke and Touji's current states, "You guys alright?" Attributing his friends odd reactions to the fact that Kotoko was a marvel of creation far surpassing anything on the consumer market, Shinji put Kotoko back in his pocket, much to her enjoyment. "As for the pageant, I can't be biased or cheat guys…I'm not sure why Fuyutsuki-san insisted I be the last judge."

A large crash broke the trio from their ensuing debate on the morals of letting women try and manipulate Shinji the girls had arrived and as usual were having a quiet and civilized conversation. "I told you blue to shut the hell up! Angels and demons aren't supposed to be friends! Now stop hugging me freak!" Asuka was always dainty with her replies…as well as throwing Rei across the room where she floated into her chair with no harm done.

Popping the top off the fifth extra-large container of aspirin she'd used this week, Chiyo felt a big headache coming on. 'Why am I getting new guest students today when I can't handle the ones I have? And why won't Sakaki stop calling me and apologizing…its embarrassing to receive roses from a woman.' Opting to not use the normal means of getting the classes attention when the red head and blue head were having 'happy fun time' Chiyo lit a small firecracker. After its pop, increased by the small confines of the room, got the classes attention Chiyo smiled. "Students as you all know in a few weeks we'll be hosting the Miss Tokyo-3 and Miss Teen Tokyo-3 pageant. As with such events a lot of students from outside our city have come to sign up and participate. Today from Othori Academy we have two guests who insisted on visiting our classroom."

At the mentioning of Othori academy the entire class was paying rapt attention. It was still all over the news how the principle of that school was fired and two students expelled for being seen in lewd photos…together. Touga, Saionji, and Akio didn't know how the photos they made together got out, but Anthy had a slight bounce in her step ever since they had. Shinji however was sitting at the edge of his seat, he had been a student of Othori before coming to Tokyo-3, and the two people he'd ever considered friends were from there.

A hushed murmur washed over the classroom as the two ladies walked into the room and stood at the head of the class. One was tall with long flowing pink hair, soothing blue eyes, and wearing a man's jacket. The other was more exotic she was either really tan or Indian by appearance with waving purple hair and an air of mystery. The boys looked directly at Shinji and in one voice, "don't you dare talk to them!" They wanted a chance with the beauties first.

Sadly such was not to be for them, as not only were the two lesbians and lovers for that matter, Shinji's face split with joy as he jumped out of his chair and rushed to two. "Utena-sempai, Himamiya-sempai how have you been?" A collective groan burst from the boys while Kensuke added two names to his listing, the girls were about to draw blood. Never had Shinji been so animated about a girl before, let alone two or even rush to hug anybody!

The pink haired woman, Utena as Shinji said, crushed Shinji in a firm hug. "Hey half pint what did I tell you about the 'sempai' business and weren't you supposed to call us once a week?" Ruffling Shinji's hair Utena nearly laughed at the crestfallen look on Shinji's face. Moments after she'd let go of him Anthy placed one slender hand on his shoulder and reiterated Utena's statement.

"We grew worried about you Shinji-kun. You weren't one to lie to us." Her mellow voice filled the young boy's minds with confusion. Something about how they acted, sounded, and even held themselves felt off. "Have you been keeping up with your swordsmanship Shinji-kun?"

Touji turned to Kensuke and mouthed silently 'swordsmanship?' Kensuke shrugged and added another notch on the 'things unknown about Shinji' list. Back at the front of the class during what should be a lesson but now turned brooding session for legions of girls, "Sorry but I've been busy with work and all…have you two…" Shinji let his voice trail as he wasn't sure if his two friends had ever made their relationship public.

"I'm sure we'd all love to hear more about your pasts but if you've forgotten we're in school Ikari-kun, would you and your girlfriends please take your seats?" Chiyo asked from behind her desk. She could sense the air in the room and it was a powder keg of energy. The Sailor Senshi glaring at the two newcomers while Rei hummed to herself and bounced in her chair, Sasami and Asuka still sending instant messages back and forth about how to behave.

Soon the class was officially started but Shinji could stop sneaking peeks at his two lost friends and saddened that this was the only time he'd get to see them before the pageant. Sending reconnaissance photos back to her creator, Kotoko was also watching the duo from Othori.

X- I always thought Touga and Saionji were a little 'iffy' –X

Being Wednesday meant that for the boys it would be sports and the girls would be trying not to drown each other in the pool. Utena however was with Shinji and the boys on the basketball court. "Dude man, she's like so good at this how is that possible?" Touji said while gasping for air. The whole male populace save Shinji, Kensuke, and now Touji were trying to beat the athletic Tenjou as she emasculated them.

"Utena-san has always been very good at sports, you should see her with a dueling sword if you think she's a fierce opponent now," Shinji said with a knowing smile and light giggle. Leaning back into the grass and watching Utena stomp all comers for dominance, Shinji was basking in pleasant memories, and they were few and far between.

Doing his best to keep from laughing at Touji, and spare himself the pain of the jocks retaliation, Kensuke eyed Shinji. "Speaking of dueling swords, did we hear that beauty correctly when she said you practice swordplay?" The notion of Shinji wielding a sword was laughable, but so was the idea that one boy could capture the hearts of so many. "And what exactly is your relationship to that butch beauty and her quiet cohort?" Kensuke was proud of that sentence.

His eyes still with a faraway look on them as he recalled the numerous hours practicing, Shinji's voice was soft. "I'm not really proficient with them, it was just the only club that would accept me when I went to school there…and the club had only two members Utena and Himamiya. They were forced to take another member or they'd have been forced to join up with the kendo club. I did what I could and they accepted me." Bitter memories followed the good at the rivalry between the two clubs and the empty feeling he had after he was forced to quit.

"So you and those lovely ladies spent hours together, just the three of you? Oh man you have to tell us did anything happen?" Touji was getting his second wind and it was all due to a healthy dosage of lust and fantasy. "You ever beat her too I mean she's a girl I bet you owned that club by the time you left it to come here." Ever the sexist pig, Touji fully believed his statement even after being forced out of the basketball game by being overpowered by Utena.

Luckily for Kensuke he wasn't hovering over Shinji's lying body as at the mention of beating Utena left Touji's lips Shinji shot straight up. "Don't even hint at me dueling Utena again! I won just one time on accident and had to spend a week engaged to Himamiya-san until we could duel again!" A shudder ran down Shinji's spin and numbness grew in his stomach at the memory of finding Anthy waiting in his bed for him calling him her betrothed.

Rubbing his eyes and cleaning his ears, Kensuke needed clarification. "Wait…you Shinji Ikari were engaged to that other girl over a duel you won with her?" Kensuke ended by pointing at Utena who had just finished beating the remaining men of class. "Cause if you're serious I'm going to have to have you checked out for insanity. How is it even possible to win a bride in a duel?"

"Well it gets complicated with roses and rings and freaked out floating castles…you know what lets not talk about it. My head hurts just thinking about it." Shinji rubbed his temple for emphasis. With his free hand he waved over Utena who was toweling off and jogging over.

Pulling himself into a better seated position Touji re-evaluated Shinji. "So before you were engaged to that babe Sasami you were engaged to that Indian chick?" How many engagements can one fourteen year old have? Touji would have fainted if he knew just what Gendo had used as collateral for many of his business deals.

"Yeah but I don't think Anthy or Utena would have been to happy had I stayed engaged to her. You see their lesbians." Shinji wasn't prepared for his friends to start laughing at him. Touji clutched his sides as they started to ache from the strain and Kensuke started cleaning his glasses as tear stains streaked down them. "What's so funny guys?" Shinji asked in confusion.

"Dude that's the oldest trick in the book. You asked one of them out didn't you and they said they were lesbians." Touji got out in between laughs. For once Shinji failed to get the girl and they gave him that tired line. Made Touji feel a lot better knowing Shinji was in fact human.

Taking a swig of her water bottle, Utena walked over to the trio and knelt down by Shinji. "What joke did you tell them that set them off like that, not one of Touga's jokes I hope." Utena gave Shinji a weak glare before wrapping an arm around her pseudo-brother. She was worried that with his low self esteem and manner of putting others ahead of himself that he'd have been used by others, she was still debating on what to do with the two boys with him.

"I don't know Utena-san," Shinji caught himself, "I just told them about you and Himamiya-san's relationship and they started laughing." Why would anybody laugh at such a nurturing and supporting bond as the one Utena and Anthy had Shinji couldn't fathom. Utena however realized what the joke was. They didn't believe Shinji, thought he had played his hand and they lied to him. Well she was about to have some fun with them alright.

Knowing Shinji would forgive her for her upcoming actions, Utena gave him a wicked grin that he instantly recognized as trouble. "Oh but we did offer to let you join us Shinji-kun, Anthy and my bed is always big enough for you to join us. Anthy in particular wouldn't mind having your assistance once and awhile. And if I remember correctly from our last few spars you could end up her husband after all." Touji and Kensuke stopped laughing instantly as the words sank in. Shinji hadn't lied about the women being lesbians.

Cursing the injustice of it all, two more beautiful girls out of their reach, Touji and Kensuke crumpled under themselves. Blushing uncontrollably Shinji tried to ignore the advances and innuendo Utena was using, knowing it was a joke. Her leg draped over his, her check against his, and the unmistakable smell of roses that followed the woman everywhere. Utena leaned in and whispered, "Sorry about that but those two need a lesson in respected others life choices." Giving him a quick kiss on the cheek she ended, "You really need to stick up for yourself or I will duel you again and lose just to keep tabs on you little bro."

At this point Touji and Kensuke passed out from shock, minds filled with adolescent fantasies and misconception about what Utena was insinuating. Shinji chuckled as he looked at them. "I didn't really worry you to much did I?" Utena's pet name for him setting his mind instantly at ease, the pleasant memories out weighing the bad.

"Well part of this trip was for Anthy and me to see how you were doing, that and the contest. Anthy really wanted to enter, she's become quiet the social butterfly after her brother was arrested." Utena's eyes wavered for a moment as she looked up at the pool area and saw Anthy's form for a moment. "Seriously Shinji, after you left us and didn't contact us we grew worried. You're too nice to others so we wanted to check up on you. Anthy right now is inspecting the girls for me while I wanted to check on them," she nudged Touji with her shoe.

A sense of family, of connection, between him and his old school mates came rushing back at him. He had people that cared about him, even if he didn't get to see them much anymore. Slowly drawing Utena into a hug, "Thanks…sis," he knew she loved it when he called her that. "Things are good here, confusing but good."

Enjoying the warmth of the embrace Utena said nothing for a long while, just letting her sense of joy emanate outwards. She hoped Anthy was having a better time with the girls than she did with the boys, from Utena's opinion Shinji should leave the school and go back to Othori, the boys seemed to dislike Shinji just for him being alive. Unable to keep her sense of humor at bay Utena felt her lips moving before she realized what she was saying, "and you know Shinji what I said wasn't a joke you know, our place is always open for you." Shinji nearly fainted.

X- We really don't know what happened to him before Tokyo-3 do we? –X

With the bulk of the day behind them all, and many of them in varying states of shock for two main reasons, Utena and Anthy, they were ready to go home. Sasami sat in a daze after learning Shinji had a prior engagement, Rei was blissfully ignorant, and Asuka well Asuka didn't care as she could burn those who stood in her way to dust. Shinji however was on cloud nine most of the day but could feel sadness growing as he knew the day would end and they would leave.

"He Baka, shouldn't you be taking notes, you humans do value your education," Asuka said ignoring Chiyo's demand for quiet study. She could feel her vassal's emotions surging and receding and it angered her. She never got such a response from him, yet. So what did these two humans have that she didn't? Was it because they were going to be in this pageant thing? If so she'd enter too and lay waste to all contenders, sure she joked with Hikari about joining but had no real intention, but now…now things were different if she won the contest their would be no denying her Shinji!

Turning away from his book and into Asuka's oddly tranquil for a demon's eyes, Shinji waved off Asuka's comment. "I'm not in a good state of mind…My friends from Othori only came for the day and I'm going to miss them once they leave…I'm sure you miss people from hell right?" How easily it was for him to accept that Asuka came from hell that it unnerved him a little.

As Asuka opened her mouth to speak, the door burst open and two very angry upper class women entered the room. One had short blond hair while the other long emerald green, Shinji recognized them as Haruka and Michiru. Haruka's loud yell broke many students out of Othori induced coma's, "Where is Shinji Ikari?"

For once it didn't seem that a woman was looking for Shinji with good intentions, Utena clenched her fist momentarily and considered a pre-emptive strike towards the two women. "I'm right here," Shinji said with neigh a moment's hesitation, what the women wanted he'd face. But boy did he want to run right then. "C-can I help you with something?" Chiyo threw her notes into the air and just sat in her chair, this day was a wash just like so many others.

Rushing the few meters over to Shinji's desk, Haruka grabbed him by the front of his collar, "What's this I hear you've slept with our daughter!" A gasp from the Sailor Senshi was the first thing heard, other than Shinji's blood flowing through his head. "You better have a damn good explanation mister or I will see how good I can bounce you off the ground!"

Utena was quick to her feat but was stayed by Shinji's hand, "Haruka-san it's complicated you see…" Touji looked over at Kensuke who already was pulling up the rankings and checking out what the payout was going to be, the game might just be over. "I didn't really 'want' to sleep with Hotaru she just wouldn't let me go so I had to." And his innate cat-instincts at time told him it was warm and soft and oh so easy to sleep wrapped in Hotaru's gentle embrace.

The loud thumb that was heard was Shinji being slammed over Haruka's shoulder and to the ground, Asuka was next to her feet and ready to make some Senshi BBQ. "Well so it was Hotaru's fault was it then? Somehow I don't see our little girl being one for bring boys into her bed, and if it wasn't for her journal we'd not have learned of it!" Kensuke's emails to the winners was being sent out as Haruka spoke, it was an open and shut case apparently. Sasami looked crushed but wouldn't believe it so quickly, surely something wasn't being told.

"Its not like you say it was Haruka-san," Shinji tried to say then had to move his head as Haruka's fist of over protectiveness slammed down towards him. Her motherly instincts in overdrive it was hard to think straight when she thought her adopted daughter had been violated. Anthy was over by Utena, Utena's hand pressed firmly to Anthy's chest ready to draw her blade. "Hotaru was just helping me out, I was in a bad state and she was looking out for me you see…we didn't um…do 'that' it was just sleep."

Michiru stepped over to his prone body and put her hand on Haruka's shoulder. "Let me check something before you kill him ok? Maybe he's telling the truth…Hotaru doesn't seem like the type." Haruka's body trembled with nervous energy as she stood and pulled back from Shinji. He had better hope that Michiru saved his ass or she'd get her daughters revenge. The harsh glare in Michiru's eyes didn't fade when she leaned over Shinji. "If you are lying young man you will pay you see. Hotaru may not be related to us by blood but she is our daughter." Without further words Michiru held a mirror over Shinji's chest and she peered into it.

Moments later a great flash of light engulfed the room and Michiru fell back her mouth agape. "Oh My! He was the…all that time he was…he's telling the truth Haruka…we…we have to go now and talk about…oh hell." All the commotion that they had made in trying to punish Shinji had drawn a nice sized crowd and one member of it was, "Hello Hotaru how are you?"

Running past her foster parents and flinging herself on Shinji, "I'm so sorry Shinji-san I didn't mean for this to happen those two read my dairy without my permission. Forgive me?" Hotaru, in her happiness about learning the truth about her lost Tiger Cub-San, had written an embellished recounting of the events that her parents read resulting in the travestying of the learning system.

"Of course I do…but if you'll excuse me I think I need to change, I'm a bit messy," Shinji's body and cloths were covered with dirt and pieces of plaster and wood from Haruka's attacks. His body quivering and shaking with fear and endorphins, Shinji left the room with the aid of Sasami who had rushed to his side. Turning to her parents Hotaru summoned something that sent a feeling of approaching death to all the Senshi, Hotaru had her glaive in hand and wasn't looking to happy.

As Shinji and Sasami neared the gates of the school, Shinji leaning heavily on his fiancé, a pair approached them. "You have quite a hectic life Shinji-kun," Utena said as she rounded the gate before them.

"And you have a lovely fiancé in this one," Anthy admitted as she rounded her half the gate. "You take care of him Sasami-san or we'll be back you know." And before the astonished two could react the lovers entwined there hands and walked away trusting the fate of their little brother to the hands of Sasami.

Giving Sasami a fleeting smile, "I wouldn't trust you to do anything but your best Sasami-chan. I just hope I can do the same for you." Sasami stricken mute by her joy at hearing Shinji's comments about his trust in her just hugged his arm harder and lead him home. This day at school had ended and a new part of her life, the part that held him highest in her heart had begun.

X-Yeah cheesy but I love a good sappy love story –X

Author notes

Yeah it was quick and random but that's what this story is made for. Hope you liked it despite all the randomness. I'm not going to have a ranking this chapter as I'm trying to think of a better way of doing it. I don't want to sound like I'm asking for reviews so until I can think of an other way voting is on hiatus.

Hope you laughed, hope you smiled, and I hope you felt something that the characters did. Emotions are great things and if I can convey them in my words to you then that makes me happy.

Ja Mata

Zentrodie (zentrodie – at- secondimpact-dot-com)


	23. And now for something completely differe

Standard Disclaimer!

Been awhile since I wrote a chapter of this story, if you're a fan I apologize. This story has been and will always be just a way for me to write but not stress about what I'm writing, a writing break from writing so to speak. Novel is moving along nicely and my other stories are at crucial points so I wanted to plan a bit more so…

X – I go to the staple – X

What We Make Of It

Chapter – 23

The One Not Seen

Or

Love's not always happy

Standing before a full body mirror as after she got out of the shower, Sasami looked at herself. Normal teenagers would have cried with envy at seeing said body, no longer was Sasami to be considered cute, no she was a vision of loveliness. A flat yet toned stomach, long and fine arms and muscular but not bulky legs. Her bust, while far from matching Mihoshi or Ryoko, was far from underdeveloped. And although she didn't know it, Sasami's face could bring even the most loyal man to have doubts of infidelity.

She didn't see any of this. No Sasami only saw the flaws in her body as she dried it with a towel. She compared herself to all the other girls vying for her fiancé's affection and found herself lacking in every respect. Rei's eyes were a sharper red, Misato's bust was larger and firmer, Kos-Mos's skin was whiter, and every other blessing she had been given as countered by some feature another woman had. "I don't stand a chance of keeping him," she mumbled.

"Sasami you ok in there?" Washu called via a sound only monitor. While she could have made many onsen bathrooms for everybody to use, Washu liked efficiency and saw sharing as a good thing. "I made a mess with one of my experiments and need to wash up."

Putting on her school cloths, Sasami sighed heavily, "I'll be out in a moment ok?" Slapping her face lightly, she forced a smile on her face. It would do no good for others to see her depressed, to show weakness to them. A weaken animal is quick to be singled out and eaten. Trying her hair into her signature mighty pigtails, she called out "I'm decent you can come in now."

Almost instantly the large metallic door swished open with a noticeable hydraulic hiss. As Washu walked into the modest sized bathroom, only the square footing of most single story homes, Sasami's breath was stolen from her as again, in her eyes, a superior woman was presented to her. Smiling at the reaction she got from Sasami, Washu posed as sexily as she could, "My child body didn't have the strength I needed to put the beast down so I had to change. I know I'm a goddess aren't I?"

Even clad in the green goo of her kill, Washu's form personified the Goddess she really was, even if she didn't know it. "I…you…" Sasami wanted to speak but in her state of growing depression could only gape and see things that didn't exist. _She's mocking me! She knows I'll never be that tall or that sexy!_ Running past the stunned crap aficionado, Sasami never saw the look of concern growing on Washu's brow. "Let's go Ryo-Oki," Sasami called out to her pet as she neared the door that lead to the shared domicile of her fiancé's broom closet.

Garbed in her child form, Ryo-Oki 'mya-ed' and went running after her best friend. Working on her Japanese, the cabbit was able to say a few words but they often came out in frantic pleas to be let go from the hug whoever was smothering her had her in. "Sa-sa-mi!" the cabbit finally got out as the door opened and the two crossed dimensions.

Rubbing her eyes to combat the feeling of hopelessness that oft drove her to cry, Sasami looked at her pet/friend. "What is it Ryo-Oki did I forget to feed you this morning?" A moot point as often Ryo-Oki wandered over to the timid food provided next door for breakfast, and Shinji had again cooked a nice carrot salad for the growing spaceship. "Was it something else?" she asked seeing the frustration on the animal's face, a sign that it wanted to say something but didn't know how.

Having over the years developed a small bond with the young Jurian princess, similar to what she had with Ryoko only weaker, Ryo-Oki sensed Sasami's distress. "Sasami sad?" the cabbit finally forced out, face red with exertion. Already sounds of approaching feet and general conversation were being heard. Asuka, Shinji, and Kos-Mos were debating the right of the Machine to own Shinji's closet. "Sad?" she said again trying to get back Sasami's attention.

"I'm fine Ryo-Oki," Sasami's voice was distant, as if she wasn't even her but a recording. The princess's eyes were drawn to Shinji's approaching form, he waved at her and had a small smile on his face which turned to a blush as Misato, clad in only a towel rushed up to him and hugged him goodbye and to push the other girls away. "I'm fine," Sasami said once more to herself hoping desperately to believe it.

X – As you guessed this next arc isn't all about funny – X

"So how goes our fair judge just two weeks away from his designated post?" Kensuke asked as Shinji sat down at his desk. The anticipation for both the Miss Teen Tokyo-3 and the Miss Tokyo-3 pageant had been growing exponentially. Their class alone had been visited by roughly twenty teenage contestants wanting to get a feel for the 'town.' Where they really wanted to sink their claws into the youngest judge and stack the odds in their favor, all left without having a judge in their pocket but a fondness in their hearts.

Taking Kotoko out of his bag and setting the quiet observer down, and laughing as Sumomo jumped out of a pocket he hadn't known she was in, Shinji turned his attention to Kensuke. "Getting a little hectic at the apartment. We keep getting visitors who just so happen to be contestants. I know this is an important thing but I feel bad turning them away. They're so hopeful and have such grand dreams, it's a shame I can't help all of them."

Doing his best not to watch Sumomo antagonize her compatriot in a game of chess, Touji just rolled his eyes. "Shin-man this is just a contest! It's not about hopes or dreams or anything like that. Why not just ride the attention high while it lasts, what I would do!" He puffed out his chest and slapped it with his hand. "What any decent man would do!"

Sticking his finger down his throat, Kensuke groaned. "And you wonder why the Class Rep doesn't pay attention to you anymore. I have to agree with Shin-man here. The winner of this contest, both branches, is going to be set for life! The prize money alone is mind boggling!" Though Kensuke had hopes that the growing pool would have a higher payout for him than the winners purse, it was shaping out to be that way.

After the confusion with Hotaru almost being named the winner three weeks past, the pool had exploded with changes. The odds were in a state of constant flux, some girls went down and others went up and all the while Kensuke laughed.

Speaking of the Senshi of death and rebirth, Hotaru peeked her head around the door of the classroom looking for her beloved Tiger cub-san. "Shinji-san good morning!" the petit girl called bashfully from outside the classroom.

"Hotaru-san how are you this morning," Shinji asked as Touji and Kensuke readied their insulin shots. How Shinji didn't notice how think the girl's crush was baffled to two's minds. "Don't just stand in the doorway come over," he added with a grin.

A lovely crimson blush fell over her cheeks as Hotaru walked across the room. The eyes on her held such malice that it was barely contained. Wouldn't have been save for Asuka and Rei's presence. The two other pilots both believed that they owned Shinji's heart and the other girls didn't make any move to jeopardize that belief.

Handing a small pink box to Shinji, Hotaru couldn't maintain eye contact with him. "I made you a lunch today…if you don't mind." She'd noticed he's often have a lunch already but she could hope, one could always hope. The box grew in weight in her mind as it remained extended; fear gripped her as she saw him refuse it and her.

Alleviating her fears, Shinji took the offered lunch from her trembling fingers. "Thanks Hotaru-san, I forgot to make mine today and was going to have to buy one. Should I return the box after lunch or tomorrow?" Shinji didn't notice the ten other girls' whose faces dropped at their missed chance at providing lunch to not only the judge but their crush. Sasami was among them and her face dropped the most for not having noticed earlier. "So are you sure your parents," he wasn't sure if that really was the best word for them, "won't let you enter the contest?"

That got the ears of all the girls that weren't paying attention burning, less competition the better. A slow shake of her head and a frown all but answered Shinji's question. "They don't think it would be good for my health to be under all those lights and put in that situation." Really those two could be so annoying at times, wanting to look pretty and gain back her once beloved pet was something Hotaru wanted. "Well I have to head back to my classroom now, you can give me the box back after lunch Shinji-san."

Waving at Hotaru as she walked away, Shinji sighed contently as he slid the bento into his desk. "Guess lunch won't be a problem after all. Why are you guys looking at me like that?" Shinji asked as Touji and Kensuke glared at him.

"Didn't you even notice all the hearts on that bento she gave you Shin-man! She's got the hots for you!" Touji cried aloud making the other girls even more upset at the timid underclasswoman. Touji could stand for some blindness on Shinji's part, but this was just gullibility. "And didn't you see that look she gave you when you mentioned the pageant, she was all messed up about it."

Seeing Kensuke nodding in agreement, Shinji drooped his head. "I must have hurt her feelings bringing it up then, I'll have to apologize after lunch," he said missing the whole point. Always willing to find what he did wrong as compared to right, Shinji believed his friends were criticizing his mistake and not commenting on his budding list of potential girlfriends.

Across the room Asuka, Rei, and Hikari sat in a semi-circle of desks. Rei had for the first time in ages not read anything and was herself, her true self, but everybody just thought she'd read Nadesico and was acting as Ruri. "Shinji-kun forgot his lunch today, how could you have let that happen?" she asked glaring at Asuka.

"Me! Why should I insure my Vassal has food, he made mine so I assumed he made his own," Asuka replied indignantly. Her Vassal acted as one should, assure the master got what she needed then attend to his own needs. "Anyway that girl provided for him, she'll make a good servant after we conquer this measly planet and burn the Heavens to the ground."

Paled, Hikari forgot that she was in the presence of a deamon for a moment, "Asuka you don't mean that do you?" Pushing her chair away from the demoness, Hikari smelled a hint of sulfur in the air and it was coming from Asuka's lips.

A fiery glint in her eyes, Asuka's grin was near feral. "Why my dear Hokari this is a mission of conquest after all. I'm just picking out which meat bags I want to leave on this planet with my vassal and me." Gesturing to the rest of the classroom, "the rest of them can just…" Asuka drew her finger across her throat and laughed.

"My mother won't allow that to happen and you know it, this planet is for Shinji-kun and myself. It is our playground until eternity grants us access," Rei replied in her monotone voice that we all know and love. Watching Hikari fall from her seat, eyes wide with shock and fear, Rei held her hand out, "I have told you I'm part angel did I not class representative Hokari, it should be in my medical file."

Feeling the cool touch of Rei's hand as the girl was pulled up, Hikari just gapped at the girls, "No you did not tell me that! How can I expect to win the pageant if an angel and demon are in it! That should be against the regulations!" Hikari huffed as she sat back down. Clearly it was unfair to let otherworldly beings into a human competition! She felt inadequate enough to compare her physique to the other seemingly teenage girls, but to know they weren't human was something else.

Covering her mouth with her hand, Asuka let out a serious shrill laughs. "What made you think that you even had a chance of winning Hikari?" Asuka stood up and set her palms on the edge of the desk leaning over. Her top pulled out of her skirt as she wiggled her rear. "With my body any man on this planet would be mine, these horns, these legs, this skin all of it surpasses anything on this planet!" The males in the classroom, suddenly on a hormone kick had to agree with Asuka as blood spurted out of there noses at the show, well all save Shinji that is.

Pointing at Sasami as she sat alone and dejected in her seat, Hikari squeaked out, "She's got you beat on a lot of things Asuka, she could beat you." After she said it, Hikari regretted it as Asuka's breath turned hot, very hot. Literally sweating bullets from the near broiling heat emanating form the demon princess, Hikari almost fainted.

Stuffing her top back into her skirt and standing haughtily, hand on her waist and the other pointed at the girl in question, Asuka snorted. "Lil Princess Sasami? You jest Hikari that snob hasn't even entered the pageant, and even if she did she could never match me for beauty! I'm going to win and claim my vassal as all mine and don't you forget it!"

A hushed awe filled the room as Asuka's vocal explosion set home. Blushing brightly Asuka sat back down as the gossip mill started working. The winner of the Teen Pageant got Shinji? If somebody other than Asuka won she'd relinquish her claim to him? It was to good to be true money and the man they had a crush on! Suddenly very uncomfortable, Shinji felt a cold chill go down his back despite the massive heat Asuka's blush added to the room. Things just got worse.

X – Have to have some funny or it gets to depressing –X

Having never really grasped what Asuka meant about 'winning the pageant' Shinji walked back to his apartment in blissful ignorance. Sasami at his side as Rei and Asuka quarreled ahead of them about which ethereal force would eventually win. "Are you feeling alright Sasami-san, you seem a little down?" Shinji asked as his natural empathy sensed a change in the princess.

Waving her hands frantically, Sasami claimed adamantly, "I'm fine, just a little tired I guess." Seeing a concerned smile on Shinji's face, she was tempted to tell the truth. The truth that she was afraid, terribly afraid that her being beside him was doomed to failure. That she'd be replaced and forgotten by him. Fear prevented it, fear that he'd see her words as rambling babble, or worse confirm them. "Shinji-sama…"

Caught in a mid-laugh at one of Asuka's comments that 'An Angel fighting is hardly an Angel,' Shinji turned back to Sasami. "What is it Sasami, you can tell me anything you know?" The descending sun played tricks with his eyes as he was sure the whites of Sasami's eyes were tinged pink.

Her throat suddenly felt lethargic and thick. Air hardly passed into her lungs as fear gripped her. A moment of bravery and she'd have her answers, but the moment passed, she had failed. "Would you like me to cook today or would you rather do it yourself?" She bit her lip to keep from crying.

"Kos-Mos said she wanted to try my rendition of boiled clams so I guess I will if you don't mind. She gets a little troubled sometimes if she thinks I don't value her company or want her around. I wonder what Shion-san and Ritsuko-san were thinking when they programmed her as they did," Shinji's sorrow laden voice struck Sasami with another problem of hers.

She could see it, see how some of the other girls actually needed Shinji, more than she did. Kos-Mos would be lost totally without him, a live dedicated to one that had abandoned her, Sasami couldn't think of a worse life. Turning her eyes to Asuka, Sasami saw another that was actually growing dependant on Shinji for support. While the demon had often claimed to need nothing, Sasami knew better. Saw the looks on Asuka's face when he wasn't there, or was in danger. Not coming from Hell personally, Sasami guessed that finding love in such a place was almost impossible, and not that Asuka had found it, tasted it, and wanted it to lose it would be unbearable.

"Well if that's the case I'll let you cook for your family and I'll cook for mine, Washu and I don't really care for clam, to little consistency for us," Sasami lied again to spare his feelings. Her own compassionate soul was now being used against her. Sasami couldn't, no wouldn't take the joy out of others lives, even rivals. But she wanted to nurture her own budding feelings. What started as curiosity had turned to affection and was well on its way to genuine love. "I'll have to stop at the grocery store to buy a few more things though so I guess I'll see you…see you later."

Hearing the breaking in Sasami's voice, Shinji knew something was wrong, felt it on a way he hadn't known possible. "Do you want me to go with you?" As dense as he was, Shinji knew that people often didn't like to confess problems to a crowd. _Maybe if Rei and Asuka weren't here she'd tell me what was bothering her._

"Vassal what are you doing back there! I'm hungry so stop dawdling!" Asuka yelled as Rei rushed back to them, quiet as ever and wrapped an arm possessively around his and started pulling him forward. "Even Angel Girl is hungry, though she prefers the death cries of vegetables to that of live meat."

Conflicting urges warred in him, Shinji wanted everybody he knew happy. Wanted the best for all those he cared for and cared for him, and now it seemed that Sasami was the most needing. "Asuka I…"

"Go on Shinji-sama, I'll be fine. I know my way around town, and Washu is made a strict request for supper tonight," again Sasami lied to not make Shinji feel guilty. He waved back at her, his eyes asking questions that Sasami didn't want to answer as he was pulled away from her. She couldn't help but feel that in a way he was emotionally being pulled away from her as well. "Goodbye Shinji-sama…take care," she whispered softly.

Turning on the balls of her feet she headed back towards the shopping arcade to get fresh food stock. Intending to make some good on her lies about cooking, knowing that Washu was likely busy with correcting the failed experiment and not to be seen for a few days. Alone with her thought, Sasami continued to berate herself and bask in illusionary failures.

_I'm not pretty enough, smart enough, brave enough, strong enough, sexy enough, I'm too soft spoken and nothing that Shinji-sama would want for in a wife or even a friend. _She sniffed as each thought sent a proverbial dagger in her heart. The emotional pain took on an almost physical affect as her chest ached with countless insecurities. "I should go home…back to Juria now and save myself the pain of being rejected."

In a daze, she walked the aisles of the grocery store filling her basket with a random assortment of food stock. "Would anybody even notice if I left?" she asked herself as she walked. Turning into the next aisle, Sasami collided with an unseen person turning in her direction. Falling down mostly do to shock and not force, her basket of food scattered to the four winds. Shaking the hand she braced herself with to get ride of the pain, Sasami looked up ashamed, "I'm sorry I wasn't looking where…I…was…going…" her words lost as even she had to admit the woman before her was radiant.

Clad in a dark purple kimono was a woman that stole even Sasami's breathe away. Fair almost porcelain skin, sky blue eyes and hair to match, and she just had an air of dignity about her. "Oh it's alright, I was a little absent minded myself. Can I help you with anything? Picking up your dropped groceries?" While she asked she was already gathering the dropped food items and handing them to the still stricken Sasami.

Carefully taking the items from the woman and putting them back in her basket, Sasami felt embarrassed again for a new reason. "Thanks again Miss…" she trailed off hoping the woman would provide a name for her, it was doctrine after all and she was still a princess, nothing took that from her yet.

"Aoi Sakuraba," Aoi caught on having lived a life of social necessity herself. Bowing slightly to the seemingly younger girl, Aoi smiled brilliantly at Sasami. Aoi's heart was near bursting with excitement as today she snuck away from her fathers home to meet her fiancé, sadly she was lost however. "I hate to intrude but I was here to buy a city map as I can't find my way, might you help me?"

Returning the smile as best she could, Sasami bobbed her head. "I'd be glad too, just let me pay for these and I'll help the best I can. Do you have an address or something to go by?" she asked as she headed back towards the cash counter. Why such a lovely young woman, clearly somebody of breeding and importance Sasami noted, would be alone without a competent escort was perplexing.

Waiting for Sasami to pay, Aoi insisted on carrying one of the bags while they walked to her fiancé's home. "All I have is an apartment name and room number sadly. It's the Kagatsuchi Apartments, room five o' three." After she mentioned the apartment, Aoi noticed her compatriot's demeanor dropped but brightened after the room was announced. "I'm terribly sorry but I haven't asked your name yet Miss and is something wrong with that complex?"

"Sasami Jurai and no nothing is wrong with it…just somebody very special to me lives there and I was afraid you'd say his apartment number," Sasami relaxed after the near panic attack. A woman like this would crush her hopes of ever winning Shinji, she thought. Grace, charm, looks, and money however could she compete? "Who are you looking for if you don't mind my asking?"

A rosy hue adorned Aoi's cheeks as she looked down at her sandals and slowed her pace. "My fiancé lives there. I haven't met him yet but from all I've heard and seen about him he seems marvelous." Leaning her head back, Aoi looked up at the darkening sky and thanked fate, she knew her love life was forfeit for her family honor but from what she knew of this man he would leave nothing wanting.

"An arranged marriage huh? Well I can relate I've had mine arranged as well," Sasami added as they reached the building that hosted the portal to Sasami's home and her fiancé as well. _For now I do at least, soon however I bet that changes. _

Covering her mouth with her hand, Aoi gasped. In the current age arranged marriages were seldom done outside of big business, so the girl next to her must be of great importance she gathered. "Well I hope you are happy with him as nobody should ever be forced into a loveless marriage, even if it is arranged." Aoi's confidence had a negative affect on Sasami, she resented the new girl's air, wanted it for herself.

The air between them fell into comfortable silence as they rode the elevator, "I'm not putting you out of your way am I? You could leave now if you wish I believe I can find my way from here." Aoi hated being a burden on anybody.

"Its no bother, and I can just see my…" for some reason she couldn't bring herself to say fiancé anymore, "friends who I think live next door to the man your looking for." Sasami hoped that this man Aoi was expecting lived up to the expectations the woman had set.

When the door opened and the two set foot of the elevator Sasami was welcomed by the site of Shinji leaving his apartment. Walking towards the too women, Sasami had not expected what occurred next. "Shinji-sama!" Aoi cried much like a love struck teenager and rushed down the hall as fast as her kimono would allow. Colliding with the young man's chest, standing only slightly taller than the boy, looked down lovingly at his face. "I've waited so long to see you, wanted to see you ever since I learned of our pairing and heard about your from my guardian!"

Shell shocked to find a girl rushing him as he went to find Sasami rush up against him crying tears of joy and saying what she was saying, Shinji just held the girl's shoulders and looked in her eyes, "Miss…what are you talking about?"

Taking a step back from Shinji, Aoi looked almost hurt at his words. "Shinji-sama surely somebody has told you by now that…that you and I are to be…" This wasn't what she expected at all! Why didn't he know of her, her face, and of what they would soon share? Tears changed from joy to sadness, it wasn't supposed to be like this, not at all.

Looking past Aoi, Shinji saw Sasami standing there with a look of indifference on her face. "Sasami…do you know her?" Shinji couldn't fathom what was happening at all. Aoi just rubbed at her eyes, lightly crying as she tried to understand herself.

Walking past Shinji and into the apartment behind him, Sasami turned and looked at Shinji with her best smile on her face, eyes closed, and head tilted slightly to the right. "She's your fiancé Shinji-sama, she's your fiancé." Before he could respond to her words, Sasami shut the door and ran to her broom closet, she thought she heard Shinji call out to her but she couldn't face him now.

It was over now, she'd have to pass the torch on as she knew she would have had to eventually. Rushing past Washu who was just as shocked as Shinji was to hear the news, Sasami locked herself in her room and cried until she passed out, her pillow damp with tears she didn't know she was capable of shedding. All the while she was thinking, _Why must life be so cruel! I've lost not only Tenchi but now Shinji-sama, my fiancé, to another woman!_

X-X

Author notes

Yup bit on the serious side. I thought I had a lot of funny chapters and it was time to add another serious arc to the story line. Hope you don't think it was to corny or sappy. Sasami just seemed to be the type to put others happiness before her own and that isn't always such a good thing when you're vying for the same thing.

Well enough of my blather, hope you liked this offering

Ja Mata

Zentrodie (Zentrodie –at- secondimpact-dot-com)


	24. Sasami's day

Standard Disclaimer

Yeah I know I should have written the next chapter of Divergence by now but with the work on the novel and this arc weighing heavy on my mind I had to hit this chapter up first. Hope you're enjoying the slightly more serious arc and continue to support this piece of well I'd like to say creativity but its mostly a place for me to dump a mixture of ideas that don't really fill a full story itself.

Enough of my blather!

What We Make of it

Chapter 24 – Seeking Comfort and Understanding

Or

Don't piss off a goddess

With Aoi still sniffling but leaning against his side, Shinji guided the woman into his apartment with a confused and perplexed face. Things were to confusing and happened to fast for his mind to cope with. This girl, this Aoi, said she was his fiancé, but he was already engaged with Sasami, who confirmed Aoi's status. What did that mean for them? Shinji couldn't lie to himself when he thought about the girl with the soft pink eyes, he cared deeply for her, as he did all he knew. "Aoi-san are you sure about what you said?"

Drying her eyes on her kimono's long sleeves, Aoi nodded briskly, "Yes my father was most adamant that you Ikari Shinji, were to be my husband. You're father and mine had set it up ten years go." Walking into the small apartment, Aoi was a mixture of fear and contentment. She was walking into Shinji's home, she was going to stay with him and only him! A man that was to be her husband and her living alone together, it filled her mind with a cornucopia of images. "I reviewed numerous reports about what you liked and disliked and trained for this day, the day you accepted me as your bride."

Kicking his shoes off and setting them near the mountain of others, Shinji just scratched his chin and tried to suppress the blush that was forming. The innocence in her voice was nothing new to Shinji's ears, but it always stirred his mind. "I haven't spoken with my father in over ten years, Aoi-san. I'm sorry I didn't know about the arrangement, but you see things are confusing." Aoi just clung to his arm as they walked further into the apartment, she never noticed the small mound of other shoes, women's shoes as she took off her sandals. "I think we have best sit down and talk about this."

Having grown up with her father and mother, Aoi thought it a cruel thing, Shinji's past, "You haven't spoken with your father in so long? Surely your mother would have told you about this then." Looking around the apartment as Shinji lead her into the kitchen, Aoi noticed it sparkled in its cleanliness and was another good sign for her future. Seeing Shinji start to prepare tea, she pushed out of the chair she had sat in absentmindedly and shooed him away from the kettle. "Let me handle this Shinji-sama."

At the mentioning of his mother, Shinji's body tensed and went ridged. Aoi never noticed the stress lines forming around his eyes as she pushed him away from the stove and into a chair. "Aoi-san…my mother died before my father sent me away and she arranged a different marriage for me as well." Thoughts of his mother, the knowledge of her death still hidden in the confines of his mind, was an uncured and festering wound on his mind.

Dropping the kettle on the ground, its cool water spilling across the floor sopping her socks as well as Shinji's, Aoi gasped. "I'm so sorry Shinji-sama, I said…I didn't know! The reports never said anything about your mother so I assumed…" Seeing her fiancé in a state of pseudo-shock, Aoi didn't even notice the mentioning of another arranged marriage, taking him into her arms, Aoi hugged the man, "I didn't mean to hurt you Shinji-sama."

Wrapping his arms weakly around the stranger, Shinji sought comfort from the source providing it. Part of him still raged at him for not rushing to Sasami's side, he knew something was wrong with her now and wanted to sooth her pain as this Aoi was soothing his. "It's ok Aoi-san, you didn't know." Pushing her away gently, Shinji was shocked to see tears in her eyes, such empathy was matched only by the otherwordly princess. "Lets clean this mess up."

"Shinji…who is this?" A voice called from the doorway and it wasn't happy. Aoi still at arms length from him, looking directly into his eyes with a faint blush and rosy cheeks from her light crying it painted a picture that wasn't exactly true. His head swiveling to slow for how long it took him, Shinji looked at the cross armed and irritated face of one Misato Katsuragi. "And you didn't do something you're going to regret did you?"

"Miyabi-san did you follow me?" Aoi said as she straightened herself up and adjusted her slightly shifted kimono. Walking on the wet floor closer to the woman, her heart beating faster from fear that Miyabi had followed her and was going to take her away so soon, Aoi gasped, "You're not Miyabi-san!"

Bending over to look Aoi in the eyes, Misato didn't see the traditional Japanese beauty inherent there-in, she saw trouble. "No I'm not, I'm Misato Katsuragi and want young lady were you doing with my ward?" Her tone strictly business, Misato was happy to see the girl flinch at the tone, clear sign of an easy target. Misato was about to press her advantage to get more information but something stung her nose, the sulfur smell that followed a certain hellish girl around like a cloud. "Oh hell not now."

"So what took my vassal so long getting home…who is THIS now?" Asuka said as she walked up behind Misato and saw the kimono clad stranger. "You didn't bring another one home did you Misato, I didn't know your taste went to that fetish." Asuka laughed as a small plume of fire erupted from her mouth. "So little girl are you going to be Misato's next dish?"

Aoi took several steps back from Misato and Asuka, walked right back into Shinji's chest where she wrapped her arms securely around him. "Shinji-sama who are these people…did that girl just breath fire?" Such things were impossible, it was a joke or something. Finding strength in the arms of the man holding her, Aoi felt secure and safe, "And what did that floozy mean by you being her ward?" Such a word was hard for Aoi to say, but judging from Misato's clothing, a t-shirt cut just below her bust showing her stomach and cut off jeans that looked to only cover her panties, Aoi had no doubt it was true.

Seeing the stranger stealing from her vassal, Asuka pushed Misato out of the way like a child would a doll, "Let go of my vassal girl or I'll make you regret it!" Visions of torture and punishment flooded Asuka's mind as she planned how to make this infidel learn her place. The darkness spilling over into her eyes turning them into pits of abyssal blackness, Aoi cowered into Shinji's chest to confused to think or even speak.

Before Shinji or Asuka could do anything, Kos-Mos sensing her master in danger forced her way past the demon, knowing that in Asuka's rage her beloved master would feel the pain. Putting a hand on Asuka's shoulder, standing between the demon and the prone humans, Kos-Mos stood firm. "You will calm yourself to acceptable levels before you engage in any type of interaction with Master."

Hearing yet another female voice, Aoi turned away from the white shirt that Shinji wore and saw what looked human but with metallic armaments, "What is…a robot?" her mind to overwhelmed with strangeness Aoi fainted in Shinji's arms.

X- Don't think Aoi was prepared for the reality of this did you? –X

Though she lived with Washu now and could have had a full sized bed or even larger if she wished, Sasami laid in her futon under the covers. When Washu had asked why she preferred the small sized floor runner, Sasami had said it reminded her of the time she lived with Tenchi, simpler and easier times. Sure the occupational galactic super villain would attack, but things were perfect back then. Now she huddled under the thick blanket in a ball and tried to hold back the overwhelming emotions that threatened to overcome her.

_Why can't I go back to when everything was easy? When it was me teasing Ayeka and Ryoko about Tenchi. I don't want this pain anymore…I want to be loved and love but why can't I!_ She pulled her legs closer to her chest as she envisioned just what Tenchi and his wives were doing in that odd dimension they got hurled into. Try as she might to add herself to the picture, ask Washu to send her there, Sasami couldn't picture herself with Tenchi anymore, not like she could when she was younger. No the dream of being with Tenchi had been replaced by the possible reality of being with Shinji, and it hurt so much.

It hurt because she knew the love she had for Tenchi paled for her affection for the timid pilot but as things looked now she'd be denied again. "Why am I destined for such things?" Her whole life seemed one long joke to her. She'd lost her life only to be saved by a Goddess, found a family with the Masaki's only to lose it, and now a great man to love only to find he had another fiancé. "I wish I could just die…"

"No you don't, don't think that way," the comforting voice in her head resonated. As Sasami's body lay in her room, her soul was drawn out, drawn to where her other half dwelt, Tsunami had enough of Sasami's wallowing in despair. "Never think that life isn't worth living because of the hardships presented to you," Tsunami's normal gentle grace had a firm edge to it, a biting hostility almost.

Sasami, finding herself in the spiritual realm of her ship, full of trees and clear pools of water, didn't find the intrusion as a welcomed event. "Why do you care, afraid you'd lose your future body?" Sasami spat out as she fell from the standing position she'd been summoned to back into a seated form. _Probably afraid that if I died she'd die too or something. _

Only half a foot taller than Sasami, Tsunami stood over the girl and pulled her back up to face her. Sasami' face drew away afraid to look at the mirror of what she could become, thinking it a joke or mockery. "Sasami, do you truly think that I'm only concerned for myself?"

Learning that her thoughts where heard, ashamed, Sasami looked back into Tsunami's eyes and saw the edge dying away, compassion filling its place. "No…I don't. I'm sorry." Sasami had a feeling while growing up that the connection she held with the goddess was one-sided, Tsunami got a body and she'd fade away into oblivion. "I'm sorry but can you just leave me alone for awhile Tsunami, please?"

The Goddesses head shook slowly, her mighty tresses swaying, "I cannot as I've grown weary of your self abuse Sasami. You've been looking only at your flaws where none exist! You fear the loss of our beloved when all you do is push him away to spare him your pain." Sasami's eyes widened at Tsunami's confession about Shinji. "What did you not think I share your sentiment Sasami? I think you're mistaken about what has occurred between you and I. I am not going to assimilate you when you finally reach the right age for me. We are melding into one new being Sasami, you and I will be one neither of us will be gone, we will both exist. So as you love that boy I will as well."

"But you…you're a Goddess I'm just…just a fai…" Sasami's words were silenced by a deafening crack. Tsunami's hand extended as she slapped the young Jurian, not to hard but enough to shock the girl. "Wha…why?" Tears started forming in Sasami's eye.

Pulling the sniffling girl into a soft embrace, Tsunami stroked Sasami's hair, "You stupid, stupid girl!" Her words were soft near whispers but Sasami heard clear. "You are NO failure, you are a glorious person but to kind for your own good. It's fine to be selfish on occasion." Tsunami felt the rigidness in Sasami sooth out as the girl pressed against her harder. "There, there let it all out now," Tsunami cooed as Sasami started crying.

Doing her mother proud, Sasami nearly crushed Tsunami's back as she hugged the Goddess as hard as she could. "I love him…I didn't really want to admit it…to push the dreams of Tenchi aside and accept it fully. I thought I did but was afraid…afraid to grow to attached because I felt I'd lose him,' Sasami gushed into her future embodiments warm chest. "I don't want to lose him but with so many others…so many betters…" Sasami felt Tsunami, through great effort, push her a small distance away but kept her arms entwined.

"You have no betters Sasami, you're on equal footing as they are if not more so. You only let doubt and fear cloud your vision. He worries about you, he cares for you, and I'm thinking more than either of you think." Tsunami saw confusion melt away into sweet relief on Sasami's face, the parting of clouds. "Now dry your eyes young one, I'll prove this to you if you only wait, and no more talk about death."

Hugging the Goddess again, softer much to Tsunami's relief, Sasami mumbled and acknowledgement feeling better than she had in a long while. She wasn't fully trusting of Tsunami's words, not fully, but she wanted to, clung to that hope that all was not yet lost for her. "I'll wait…and I'm sorry I let my depression…" to ashamed to talk further, Sasami let the silence fill the rest in. She wasn't miraculously cured of her depression but she'd started taking steps back towards her old chipper self. Yes the past was gone, but nothing said the future couldn't be just as good, better.

X- Having a Goddess in you would help a lot with things –X

While Shinji sat honor bound at Aoi's side, passed out on the couch, and Asuka continued to press him to let her exam the body, inside and out, Misato had business to do at Nerv. After the young heiress passed out, Shinji explained the situation to the assembled, another fiancé, and Misato wasn't going to let a second stumbling block get in her way, she was going to have it out with the old bastard himself. _If he doesn't annul this bastard thing I'll see how far up his ass I can shove those damn glasses. _

As the passionate woman made her way through the cavernous halls of Nerv, several other females, the males knew better than to approach Misato when she had that look in her eyes, questioned the woman as to why she looked ready to redecorate the halls with blood. Shion paled at the news that her perfect match had yet another fiancé, Ritsuko followed Misato to make sure the woman didn't kill Gendo not because she cared for that delicious looking younger man…no of course not it was all for duty and ass…um…duty and friendship. Lastly, Attim just groaned at another potential threat and secretly another woman she'd likely have to watch her savior interact with while she had to stay in the shadows.

Finally arriving at Gendo's office, the small empowered female army proceeded to knock on the large oaken door as nicely as possibly; Attim smashed it into dust and splinters. Gendo for his part, just shuddered, "How many times will I have to replace that door Fuyutsuki?" With Rei breaking it down bi-weekly demanding, the exact attempt to demand varying on which manga she read, that Shinji move in with her, the demoness burning it down whenever she felt like it, and any number of other females requesting something of him, he'd started being unphased by swarming masses of estrogen. "And cancel my seven o'clock meeting this might take awhile."

Noticing the murderous intent on the looks of the senior Nerv staff, Kozo was more than willing to oblige. "That's the seventh door this month and I'll go tell Seele now…good luck sir," the wiser old man ran from the room as if it held the plague. He could smell the intend to kill on the women and was correct in his belief that the young Shinji had yet another suitorette.

The four women walked across the large hall of an office, Misato in the lead, and stopped just across from the desk, "You have exactly five seconds to tell me who the hell Aoi Sakuraba is and why she is claiming to be Shinji-kun's fiancé. He already has a fiancé with that Sasami girl and yet this girl claims you set up this marriage arrangement." Her tone was dark, laced with ill intent, her hand strayed dangerously close to her sidearm.

"She's exactly what she said to be," Gendo said casually while pushing up his glasses, he knew he should have replaced the nose guard but was too lazy to buy one. "I arranged this marriage without knowing of my wife's…" a shudder went down his spine at the sheer evilness of his wife, "set this up without consulting me." Had Gendo been a smarter man he would have lied, but he was far from experienced with ways of determined women.

Attim stepped up next, along side Misato, "As the Third-Child's sworn guardian and body guard I should have been informed of this arrangement, I cannot protect him from harm and those who would use him if I'm not privy to such sensitive information." Attim's hand clenched at the thin material of her black body-suit. Gendo's eyes were surveying her supple body through his tinted glasses and again cursed his son for hogging all the luck. "What else are you keeping from me that I should know sir?" Oh how Attim hated calling that bastard 'sir' but until she arranged his accident and put Shinji in power she'd have to abide him…not that she didn't notice his perverted gaze.

His gloved hand moving of its own will strayed down below the desk to rest at his thigh, his will power just about gone, Gendo tried to keep his face firm. "I don't have to answer to an aborted experiment that has only twenty years of life, I created the foundation that created you so I don't…" Before Gendo could blink Attim's body vanished from view. Ritsuko, Misato, and Shion gasped at the sudden blur that moved from where Attim had been standing to right behind the bastard king.

Grabbing the hand that Gendo slid away from view and shoving it painfully behind his back, Attim gripped it firmly and yanked it up earning an explosive result from the man, howling in pain. "What was that Sir? You said something about not having to answer my questions?" She knew she might be signing her own death warrant, but for her pride and the life she was given she'd fight for herself and for her savior. "I think you mistake your place in the scheme of things. You WILL answer my questions and theirs if you value this arm of yours."

"Stop her at once!" Gendo yelled before Attim slammed his head down on his desk, smashing his nose against the fine hard wood. Eyeing the women before him, his arm feeling like it was about to be torn off, Gendo knew now of the power his 'aborted creation' held, and that there would be no help from the others. Grunting harshly, "I can't talk if you persist in breaking my arm." Moments later, after one last upward jerk released the man and stepped back around his desk. "Now…what did you want to ask me?"

Smirking at the emasculated man, Shion took her place at the front line, "We want to know what else you're keeping from out about the Third-Child." Much like Attim, Shion was tempted to say Shinji, but didn't want to put to much personal information on the table. "As part of the technical team, I'm concerned about the fate of the one normal pilot we have." The part about her wanting to move Shinji into her apartment and make sweaty passionate…ahem, Shion's blush irritated Misato and Ritsuko.

Rubbing his sore arm, Gendo eyed the lovely Shion as well, so many lovelies that he secretly taped and pined after. "Nerv needed funding for the evangelions so I used what was mine for what was needed." Fear started to finally itch its way into Gendo's mind. He was starting to notice that the women didn't like it when he referred to 'the boy' in anything but positive tones. _This is why I wanted a daughter…they'd be mine if I had a daughter…maybe have Ritsuko make something to fix that…_

Speaking of the bottle blond, she finally took her place along her compatriots, "You didn't use Shinji to get money from the Sakuraba's did you? You didn't whore out your own son did you?" Ritsuko was appalled, not by the fact that the man would do such a thing, but that for a time she actually had feelings for such a cruel, evil, and perverted man.

"And it was JUST the Sakuraba's that you did this with too correct?" Misato and Attim said in unison their minds in sync. They knew that the commander was a dick, a big stupid dick, and that multiple engagements was something he was likely to do. Sweat started to pour out of the man now, he could see Attim's body quivering with energy, ready to pounce on him again. Shion's eyes hardened as her hands reached into her pockets, likely to get something to hurt him with.

_Do I lie or tell the truth…duh! I LIE and LIE and LIE!_ Clearing his throat as best he could he suppressed the disappointment he had from Ritsuko not being in her usual swim suit, "I only engaged the boy to the child of Sakuraba, I promise." A large siren started emanated from Shion's pocket the moment after he spoke. "Oh shit…" she had a lie detector!

Pulling out a palm sized disk with flashing lights on it, Shion rubbed her creation against her skin, "My toy here say's your not being truthful Mr. Ikari so I suggest you tell us the truth this time." Attim wasn't quite as nice as Shion as she phased through the desk and stood, waist high in the wood and bore down on him, cracking her knuckles.

Standing up quickly at the freakish site of a human phasing through solid objects, Gendo back peddled to the wall behind him. "Well…maybe I used that trick a few more time…I really needed the money though."

"How many times Gendo?" Misato said flatly, totally disregarding rank and status. Her fingers twitched and she fought the need to draw her sidearm and train it on him.

Slumping back against the wall, a mysterious wet spot forming between his legs, Gendo sobbed inwardly. "Twenty-five. Ten of which are engagements, seven are for children sired from him, two are to be the inheritor of estates, and five are for his soul for all eternity." The last five were the biggest sum of funds Gendo ever saw, but was harder to appease the realms outside of the mortal plain so it took Shinji's soul to seal the deal.

"TWENTY FIVE!" The assembled women mimicked. Various states of shock where seen, Misato finally drew her weapon and fired it into the ceiling, Attim smashed the desk like she did the door, Ritsuko drew out several syringes with brightly colored water, and Shion pulled out another device that just looked to be created to create pain and not kill. "Get HIM!"

Gendo knew pain on a whole new level that day, but no matter how loud he screamed nobody came to help, they all were watching from the command deck on the big screen monitor as the women tore into the man. It was a great day to work FOR Nerv not so much to lead it.

X- We all want to see that don't we? –X

With the sun set and Asuka and Kos-Mos having their nightly rituals, Kos-Mos standing under a sun lamp, and Asuka drawing in the suffering and pain of mortals to fuel her evil powers, Shinji sat next to the couch where Aoi Sakuraba still lay sleeping. "Must have been a real shock for her, coming to find me and seeing everybody here." He smiled at the girl and respected her bravery. Was she really his fiancé, he didn't know, oddly was torn on the issue. One girl bound by family responsibility was bad enough, two of them would tear his heart in twine.

He felt horrible about Sasami too, wanted to run to her, see what was the matter, and why she had been acting strangely the last few days, but he couldn't just abandon Aoi. When the young woman awoke what would happen if nobody was there for her? "What can I do for you?" he said softly as he stroked a stray lock of hair away from her face, he marveled in the mixture of cute and beauty that was there, much like Sasami's face. A knock on the door distracted him from staring at the small budlike lips with their slight pink tinge that contrasted her face exquisitely. "Coming!" he held hoping to both gain the attention of the guest yet not wake the sleeping woman.

Opening the door without looking through the peep-hole, Shinji fully expected a drunken Misato who had forgotten where she put her house key. What he found was two faces he remembered briefly. Both had reddish hair, one wore a full length cape and had large glasses, the other a short crop of hair and a leather hat on, it was the Misu sisters. "Oh hello Tira-san, Chocolate-san how are you today? Misato is out if you were looking for her."

Stepping into the small apartment, Chocolate gave the unknown boy a peck on the cheek that both Kos-Mos and Asuka felt. "No dear Shin-chan we came here today on official business. It seems a wayward kitten that we're in charge of watching has strayed into your home. How loving of you to care for her." Chocolate wanted to eat the boy up right there. She could feel his magical essence radiating out of his body.

Sensing her sister's intent, Tira pushed Chocolate away from Shinji before any impulses were acted on. "Shinji-kun we know that Aoi Sakuraba has come into your home. She was to come and stay with us for awhile but seems she couldn't wait to see you." Fishing into her robe, Tira pulled out an elaborate note with the Sakuraba family seal stamped on the end. "We've come to take her home."

The two Misu sisters always had a strange affect on Shinji when they were around him. Tira being demure and shy, while Chocolate pouted cutely with her finger to her cheek, Shinji could never understand what they wanted or why the showed up as they did. "She's asleep on the couch right now, do we have to wake her?" She asked out of consideration.

"To much a man for her Shin-chan and only just meeting her, you animal," Chocolate teased as Shinji turned beat red and blubbered out apologies and excuses. "Oh and don't worry about our dear Aoi-chan she won't be in any trouble." Chocolate said knowing what was on Shinji's mind. Walked to the couch, Shinji wondered how she knew the apartment layout so well. Chocolate took Aoi into her arms without waking her.

Standing at Shinji's side as Chocolate walked back out of the apartment, Tira bowed low. "I'm terrible sorry about this Shinji-kun, we wanted to prepare her and yourself more for the news but Aoi couldn't wait." The ruse was set, little did Gendo know that the Misu sisters had sided with the Sakuraba to take the prize from them, and the Sakuraba's didn't know that the Misu's weren't really going to become servants like they said, no it was a ruse to slay as many birds with as few of stones as possible. Get Shinji and Aoi engaged, the competition moves on, then steal Shinji just prior to the wedding and then well…see how things went.

Seeing Tira to the door, Shinji waved his hand slowly, "It was no trouble…and we really are engaged aren't we?" He didn't want to accept it but by Aoi's own words and the dialogue from the Misu's sisters Shinji had little doubt left. _I don't deserve Sasami…and now another girl? I have to choose or will that be made for me as well?_

Looking around the room, insuring that Chocolate was gone, Tira gave Shinji's other cheek a peck as well. She sensed in him the doubt and confusion and it made him all the more appetizing for her. A man that didn't think he was god's gift to women, one who thought himself unworthy of all the things he deserved. "You are Shinji-kun but don't worry. These things work themselves out with only a little help. See you soon." She shut the door while Shinji's cheeks were still burning red.

Spinning on his heels, Shinji rubbed his cheeks where he had been kissed and sighed. Things were getting more complex and now that he could go to Sasami, he didn't know how to. That however was answered for him in the shape of a child sized goddess who was leveling Shinji with the most intimidating stare he ever saw. "WHAT DID YOU DO TO SASAMI IKARI-KUN?" the words were spoken in docile tones but somehow it was magnified in Shinji's head.

"I…Washu-san I didn't do anything…this girl showed up, Aoi Sakuraba, claiming to be my fiancé…Sasami just walked away after telling me. I noticed she's been hiding something from me, I thought she was upset at being in an arranged marriage but…that doesn't seem right." Shinji put his hands up in repentance. "I want to talk to her but I don't know how."

"Oh you're going to talk to her, and you're going to do it NOW!" Washu newest invention the portable transporter flashed in her hand and Shinji cringed as the beam laced his body and he was no longer standing in his own apartment but in Sasami's room. Washu on her part phased over to Nerv, a certain Ikari wasn't done yet with his punishment, as the spiky haired child goddess was going to add her two-cents to the equation.

When his eyes adjusted to the dimmed light of the room, Shinji saw Sasami simply sitting Indian style on her futon. The urge to run away was never stronger in his mind, he had to fight constantly to keep it from winning. _What do I say to her…she looks so lost, so fragile. _He hated knowing, or believing at least, that he was the cause of her distress. "I'm sorry Sasami."

Her head shock back as she heard his words, not knowing that he had even entered her room. She'd been contemplating Tsunami's words, trying to believe what the goddess said was real and not some trick to keep the princess alive. "Shinji-sama…why are you here? Why are you sorry?" Her heart pounded in her chest, her fears screaming that this was the end, he was sorry because the engagement was over.

Unable to meet her gaze, Shinji's eyes stayed on his feet, "I'm sorry that I haven't noticed sooner that you were sad. I'm sorry your forced to be engaged to me when I don't deserve such a beautiful and talented woman as yourself. You should be with somebody you love, somebody that you chose not be forced here with me…somebody who can't possible live up to what a woman like you deserves." He was ashamed of himself, of his own weaknesses and truly believed he could never be worthy of the Jurian's hand.

_He things I'm beautiful…he thinks I'm talented…he doesn't think HE is worthy of ME! _The words ran circles around in her head, reverberated against her own fears and depressions and cracked them. So what if she didn't think she was the things he said, as long as he believed them it was all worth it! She hadn't lost him, not yet anyway, and by how he was talking he didn't WANT to lose her. The split would come if SHE drove him away, just like Tsunami said. "Shinji-sa…Shin-chan, that's not true, not anymore."

Forcing his resisting body to look at the princess, Shinji found her standing right before him, his breath caught in his throat as the future embodiment of Tsunami stood before him. "What do you mean?" was all he could muster. She batted her eyes at him and smiled.

"At first this was an arranged marriage, I was in love with my sisters husband…I had hoped that someday he'd be mine, and that hope kept me from seeing the truth before me. That I Sasami Juria have fallen in love with you, Shinji Ikari. I would gladly marry you without having it been arranged." Shinji's heart stopped at that moment, his blood flowing so hard he could barely stand straight up without worrying about feinting. He had never heard those words before in his live, thought it impossible, he was to undeserving to find the rare gift of affection.

His scratchy throat couldn't produce words, he tried but his mouth only opened and closed. Thanks to a psychic push from Tsunami, Sasami fell forward and embraced her fiancé, hugging the boy like her mother would and nearly cracking his ribs. "I'm glad to be your fiancé Shinji…really truly glad."

For the first time Sasami felt that life hadn't really been a series of cruel jokes meant to hurt her and mock her existence. The next two hours the two sat and talked and joked, Sasami even pulled out a board game and the two played. After his heart had calmed, Shinji would wonder if he could ever love her as she deserved, love anybody as much as they deserved. But that night he felt a change in himself start, he couldn't sit back and watch things anymore, Sasami was proof that if you sit on your feelings it becomes a powder keg waiting to explode.

He wouldn't hurt Sasami that way, or Asuka, Rei or anybody! He'd find a way to see things through. And after they two parted ways for the night, Sasami's face split in two by the biggest smile she'd honestly had for a long time, she sat at her desk and pulled out the pageant application form and prepared to fully win her fiancés heart on the battle field of the Miss Teen Tokyo-3 pageant. "What till they get a load of me!" She cackled as she pictured Asuka's stunned face as Shinji presented her a crown and the prize roses and maybe…dare she think it …a kiss?

She dreamed very vividly that night.

X- Shinji's changing, Sasami's changing…but don't think the others will sit idly by! –X

Notes

So Sasami gets a little edge on the others and confesses first. I've always been a fan of Sasami's and well this is part homage to that. Don't think for an instant though that the pairing of this fic is set…hell I write this thing knowing that I don't really know how I want it to end. Hope you liked it and I hope you continue to support it.

And I do know that this chapter seems a trifle rushed but well I didn't want it to get bogged down into angst and depression to much.

Ja Matta

Zentrodie (zentrodie – at- secondimpact –dot-com)


	25. The most expensive time of year

Standard Disclaimer

Ok people it's another seasonal story! Last year it was Halloween this year Christmas! I repeat that again the seasonal installments don't fit into the general time-line and are basically stand alone little excursions. On the whole things are good on my end and hope you are too.

Bah enough blather time for a happy X-mas

X-X

What We Make of It

Seasonal Special – Ho Ho Ho?

Opening the refrigerator and pulling out the only non-alcoholic beverage he could find, egg nog, Shinji shut the door with a smile. It was Christmas Eve and he had already finished all his shopping days before. They sat nicely wrapped in one of his unused dresser drawers waiting for the NERV party in the morning. The others well they all ran out of the apartment that morning in a mad dash for the shopping arcade. Pouring himself a nice tasty glass of fatty milk substance, Shinji smiled as Misato clad in Santa hat nearly fainted when she realized she had no more time to shop. "Hope they're doing good, shops should be closing soon."

Taking his cup into the living room, lights dimmed but the room was illuminated with strings of lights that Misato and Sasami strew about everywhere. "Wonder if any of those old American movies are on now?" Shinji asked himself as he sat down for a relaxing night to himself. Kos-Mos and Asuka had been mystified about the concept of Christmas having never experienced one so Sasami took it upon herself to teach them. When Shinji asked her why she was so excited about the Earth custom Sasami just smiled and said that the season had special memories for her.

Flipping through the stations and finding exactly what he was looking for 'It's a Wonderful Life' with the actual English voice actors and subtitled Shinji hummed contently and made himself comfortable. "Can't stand Japanese dubbed American movies, the voices never match how my mind perceives them." His mind wandered as the show began to the other people he knew and the unique way they prepared for the next days party.

A lot of his school friends had requested he join them for a party, Kensuke and Touji said they were setting it up and he had to go. His study buddies from the Hikawa Shrine invited him to their private party and said something about having five presents for him. And Hotaru called him the other day and asked he had a moment to come over to get his gift from her. He had gifts for all of them and more so he expected the next day to be something of and endurance race.

"I just wish it'd snow like it does in the movies," Shinji said softly as he looked outside at the nightscape of the city wrapped in its perpetual summer. Sipping his egg nog again, enjoying the feeling of the thick liquid sliding down his throat he rubbed his eyes as he felt a little twinge of fatigue. Looking at his watch, "Almost eleven already? Guess they all went out to eat together before coming home." He didn't mind, even though he cooked a large meal for them and had it on the table, he wouldn't be upset. The reality was that the Tokyo-3 branch of Victoria's Secret was being hounded by the largest mass of females it ever did and that in turn made the lines longer and kept the store open.

All of Shinji's would be suitorettes had big plans for the mistletoe and having their…present…unwrapped by Shinji's slow, fumbling in some girls minds, hands only to find the inner wrapper to be even sexier. Seeing the competition doing the same just meant they had to put for more effort in finding the perfect accents to their forms.

Yawning as Clarence dived into the raging river to save a man down on his luck and contemplating suicide, Shinji looked at his bedroom. "Maybe I should turn in early," he asked Ryo-oki who had taken her favorite sleeping spot in the nook between Shinji's legs. At first she did it to irritate the girls that rivaled her best friend, now she found it a very warm and comfortable spot.

Mya-ing in her ever to cute manner, Ryo-Oki just scratched her big ears and laid back down to sleep. Rubbing the back of the cabbit's head and eliciting a series of purrs Shinji thought he heard something at the door. "Hello?" he called out to be answered by silence. "Is anybody there?" Scooping the cabbit in his arms and laying her on his shoulders, she'd have reluctantly did it anyway not wanting to lose the source of heat, Shinji walked to the door. Pulling it open and looking into the hallway he saw nothing. Peeking his head out, "Hello is anybody there?"

Nobody answered his calls as nobody was there just the chirping cicadas that again reminded him of the summer heat. "Guess it was my imagination," he giggled as Ryo-oki nodded. But he head it again, a small scratching sound this time but it was coming from his room! "Burglars?" a small fear lanced him at the thought of his home being invaded by a murderous thief. Gulping loudly, and not realizing that the cute thing on his shoulder could destroy angels if provoked, he made his way towards the offending sounds.

It grew louder, wood grinding against wood, Shinji's eyes widened as he recognized the sound of his drawers being opened. _So it is a thief and they're stealing the presents I bought!_ A sense of pride and determination sank in, he'd defend that which he wished to give to others. Whispering softly, "I'm going to scare them off ok Ryo-Oki, you be careful." Setting the cabbit on the floor, who in turn got ready to dispense hot liquid death to anybody that attempted to hurt her carrot provider, Shinji carefully set his arm against the door.

The sound stopped as if in retaliation to Shinji's movements, he stopped moving even stopped breathing. Silence passed for a few seconds then the sound of packages moving started again. Throwing the door open, Shinji rushed into the room and charged the would be thief. Diving at the person who yelped in a very feminine voice, Shinji tackled them to the ground, his head landing on some very soft yet firm body parts. "EEK PERVERT!"

His head resting on a very soft material, it felt like cotton but softer, Shinji looked up from the valley that was the girl's chest, and a very well endowed chest he had to admit, into the fear filled eyes of Aoi. "Aoi-san what are you doing here? Why are you stealing my Christmas presents?" The girl was so rich why would she have to steal? And she was so nice and polite that Shinji was having a hard time accepting what he was seeing.

"Um…could you please um…not touch there please?" the Aoi looking woman asked as Shinji's breath was causing some odd reactions in her skin. It felt nice but something that she didn't have time for. "And I'm not this Aoi person, I'm Santa!"

Realizing he was still lodged between her breasts, Shinji pushed himself up as quickly and dignified as possible before extending his hand to the girl that just said she was Santa. Pulling her up, "Aoi-san is this a joke? Why are you here?" Getting a good look at her illuminated by the moonlight streaming through his window, Shinji couldn't help but blush. Aoi was clad in a very unique rendition of the Santa Claus outfit and looked like something she would sooner die of embarrassment than actually wear. She had the traditional red Santa hat on but that was where the decency ended. Her chest was covered in a red felt with white cotton accents but it was a tube top and left her midriff exposed and her skirt was red and pleated but went down to her mid thigh, and the last thing she had that stood out was a necklace of white gold with a snowflake charm dangling where his head had just been. "And why are you wearing that?"

Blushing at his wondering eyes, and for being caught, Santa cringed as she set weight on her leg. It was a sharp blinding pain, grabbing down at her ankle and rubbing it through the knee high red leather boots, Santa gasped in pain. "Ouch! My ankle I think it's sprained." Feeling the boy that attacked her, she reluctantly accepted it was with due cause since she hadn't checked if he was awake before coming into his home, lead her to his bed and sit her down she felt her nerves start t calm. "Thank you for helping, and I'm sorry I broke into your home."

"It's ok Aoi, but why did you do it?" Shinji asked as he took the chair from his desk and sat in front of the parody Santa.

Smiling bashfully, "I told you I'm Santa, not this Aoi person. Though I have heard this before. I need to meet this person. I came here because I'm having trouble getting gift ideas this year and rumor has it you're good at it." She had always been a little off in her duties as a Santa but didn't have any problem getting help. "But I think Christmas is going to have to wait this year…my ankle hurts to much for me to be able to do it."

"Wait you're really Santa? I thought he was a fat white man." Shinji rubbed his chin with his fingers. This girl couldn't be Aoi Shinji reasoned, Aoi just wouldn't wear that clothing and talk in the unabashed voice. So again Shinji accepted the strangeness of life, with Angels, demons, robots, aliens, who was to say a girl couldn't be Santa and look like one of his fiancés?"

"I'm A Santa, there are lots of us. One for every city and we do the real Santa Clause's work, but I'm still not too good at it and if I don't get this done I'll be fired." Her tone was filled with a sadness that even Shinji could feel, his eyes begged the question, what happens if you're fired. "And if I get fired it means I'll be turned back into dust. I was given life to fulfill the Christmas wishes of the good hearted but in this pain I can't possible…"

Standing up quickly, sending his chair to the ground, Shinji was shocked, "I can't let that happen! I'll do this…um…wish fulfilling for you! I hurt you in my haste so I have to make up for it!" He couldn't let this girl die for him because he attacked her! "Just tell me what to do and I'll get it done!"

About to tell him no, that it wasn't his task to do, Santa couldn't find the words. The determination in his eyes was to great that she was moved by it. "Ok…here," pulling the necklace over her head, Santa handed the confused boy the trinket. In a blinding light Santa's cloths vanished leaving a very nude girl on Shinji's bed. "Put this on and it'll give you the powers of a Santa. I'll communicate to you through it to tell you who to go to and what to do."

Averting his eyes from the very well proportioned girl in front of him, a small part of him wondering if Aoi did look like that, Shinji put the necklace on and felt his own cloths change into the traditional Santa Claus suit. "Ok…let's do this."

X- Honestly the Aoi-Santa suit is something indecent right? Tell me you agree –X

While he said he'd help Santa, Shinji wasn't really feeling good about his first assignment. "Santa are you sure she can't see me?" Shinji asked as he stood over Hotaru's sleeping body. Speaking telepathically to the rather attractive version of the old Christmas custom by touching the snowflake talisman, Shinji could feel the sweat building in his palms. _Her room looks different from the last time I was here._

Yes the large yet unfilled room of his first visit didn't do justice to the changes Hotaru had instilled since she lost her pet. The room was adorn with posters of tigers, a pile of plush white tigers in a corner of her room increased the cuteness factor Hotaru held, and the one present Shinji gave to her held the highest perch. On the girls desk was a stack of medical books and tools. She was taking her dreams into her hands and shaping them into reality. Murmuring sweet nothings in her sleep, Shinji almost didn't hear Santa's reply.

"That is correct. I didn't think you were awake so I didn't enact the magic of the pendant to make myself invisible," the girl's voice filled Shinji's head but still retained its soft qualities. "Now do what I told you and determine what her Christmas wish is."

Looking up at the sky, Shinji stomped his foot, "But that's…isn't that wrong of me to touch her like that?" His eyes went to Hotaru's chest to the sky where he envisioned his guide was watching. _I know it's where her heart is but…isn't it wrong?_

A giggle filled Shinji's mind again, "It's only bad if you have bad intentions. You're here to fulfill her wish and you can't do that unless you know what it is silly." This was becoming quite fun for the Santa whose life was held in the balance. At first she thought the boy was a little pervert, feeling her up as he did, but after watching him she knew that wasn't the case. _No wonder he was on my list for wishes._

"Ok fine but if she gets upset I'll never be able to live with myself," he mutter as he put one hand on the talisman and his other slowly snaked its way to Hotaru's body. His hand lingered in the air above the thin sheet for a moment as he built his courage then finally dove in. Unlike what he expected to happen, his hand brushing against the girl's supple body, it phased into it, the room bathed in a soft pink light that bellowed out from where his hand sank into her body.

A pleasant sigh left Hotaru's lips as warmth spread over her whole body. Shinji peeked into her dream, a dream meant to show him her most desired wish for Christmas. "Oh Tiger Cub-san its so nice to have you back," Hotaru's dream self chirped as she picked up a familiar animal and placed a loving kiss on its nose. Standing in a green field full of pansy's and tulips Hotaru twirled around in circles holding the animal in her arms but her body bumped into another.

Unable to make out the features of the boy, Shinji couldn't have known it was him. The dream was meant of Hotaru and the magic that infused Shinji wouldn't allow him to learn secrets not meant for him. "Oh you came like you promised and you got me such a lovely gift!" Hotaru set the tiger cub down and embraced the man, the dream Shinji. Seeing enough the real Shinji pulled his hand out.

"Well I can't really give you an animal as Santa said its one of the few things I can't, lets see what I can do," reaching into the sack Santa gave him to give gifts he tried to remember what she told him. _Think of the person, think of the vision, and pray to the magic of the season to give the person what they truly want._ His hand reached deeply into the bag and pulled out an exact replica of himself when he was stuck in the cat's body complete with big red bow.

His eyes boggled at the present in his mind, "This is what she wants most for Christmas?" Unable to refute her, Shinji gently pulled her arm away from her body and set the toy in Hotaru's arms. Clutching it instantly Shinji smiled at the site only to be interrupted right after.

"Ok Shinji-san its time to go to the next house. If you stay to long with one person we'll never get finished." Shinji almost thought he heard a little anger in the mental voice but dismissed it. Slinging the bag over his shoulder he touched the talisman again and was moved to the next location.

X-X

Case after case of gifts being given to the proper person left Shinji feeling a lot better with himself. Little children grabbing the toy in their sleep, in some cases it was a picture of a loved one no longer living, for one poor man on the street it was a sandwich and Shinji broke one of the Santa's laws and gave the man a second gift of a invitation to a job seminar. Time kept slipping onward and yet Shinji still felt awake and alive, happy even. Yet he hadn't seen anybody else that he actually knew. That changed with the next jump.

"Ok Shin-chan," Shinji didn't notice how Santa's term for him changed, "There is one more rule I didn't tell you. All of Kami-sama's servants on Earth get presents regardless if they deserve them or not," Santa's tone dropping to irritation. "So the next location actually has three that deserve wishes, two goddesses and one human, and a drunk that should get a smack to the face for her perversion and drunkenness but I digress."

Looking around at the familiar surroundings, Shinji found himself at an old Buddhist temple he had only visited once. "This is Keiichi-san's home!" he exclaimed as he saw the signs on the door to 'Urd's Potion Shop', 'Skuld's workroom', and 'Belldandy's tearoom.' Opening the first door and walking in, Shinji saw the bronze Goddess of love fast asleep with a bottle of saki in her arms. "Urd-san is first I guess." Shinji's hand moved now from experience towards the woman's heart to find her wish.

"WAIT SHIN-CHAN I FORGOT TO TELL YOU!" Santa screamed just as Shinji's hand faded into the pink light. In her fascination of watching the boy work, Aoi forgot one of the little quirks with dealing with beings from a higher plain.

"Shinji-kun what are you doing in my dream, and why are you dressed like a Santa?" Urd asked confused and a little perplexed at having her dream invaded and altered. It had been a dream about Troubadour and was as closest to a nightmare Urd ever got. But that changed to her being back at her home outside and on the veranda with a Santa suit clad Shinji Ikari.

Santa's voice filled Shinji's mind again, "Some of the Goddesses have the ability to sense you. Belldandy is likely to…preoccupied to notice you and Skuld doesn't have enough power but Urd as you can see knows your there. Sorry." Laying on Shinji's bed, ice bag on her ankle, Santa's face was a lovely shade of red.

Watching as Urd slinked closer to him, her eyes looking hungry, Shinji stammered, "I'm helping a Santa I hurt on accident…I'm here to give you your Christmas wish Urd-san." Why was she looking at him like that, it was a look he was accustomed too but still hadn't realized wasn't anger but adoration.

"What if I said I wanted to play with a Santa for Christmas," she cooed into his ear as she draped her arms around him. _His power is intoxicating I don't think I want to let Skuld have him. Anybody that can get mothers attention…mother…_Urd's hand slinked down off of the boy.

"Urd-san this is all I can do for you right now…you seem to not have any physical wants so…since this is technically a dream you can do whatever you want without fear of the effects of the outside world," Shinji felt his body had been acting on its own, the talisman glowing white and hot to the touch.

In a burst of fire, lightning, and high winds the CEO of Hell Hild emerged from the ground. "Urd-chan! Mommy wants to wish her daughter a happy Christmas!" Hild chirped as she flung herself at Urd and embraced her wayward daughter.

About to push the woman away, not wanting to hurt the woman but unable to reciprocate the affection that she felt but wanted to, Urd heard Shinji's words in her head again. It was a dream so technically nothing she did here was real. She'd be able to…actually tell her mother that… "Mom…I love you," Urd said as the tears started to fall down her cheeks. She didn't know if she'd ever be able to tell her mother her feelings in fear of shifting to her demonic side. She wouldn't betray her sisters but it hurt to spurn ones mother but today, this night even if she had to lie to herself after and say it was a dream she could be true to herself.

At Santa's insistence Shinji phased out of Urd's dream to let the pair have their moment in private, Shinji headed to the next room. Though in his absence both Urd and Hild felt the shared want to thank that boy later for this moment. Standing in the shared bedroom of Keiichi and Belldandy, Shinji almost felt like running away. Clothing was strewn about everywhere, the sheet covering the two told Shinji that they weren't clothed under it. Keiichi looked ragged and tired but Belldandy had a blissful expression on her face.

Belldandy had made good on her vow to show her love physically to her husband. Once in the morning, again when he got home from work, and one time before bed. She loved the concept of emotions in physical form and making love was the epitome of that. Keiichi never knew what hit him most of the time and now was exhausted most of the time, Belldandy was draining.

Covering his eyes, Shinji read both of their dreams and a few seconds after touching Belldandy pulled his hand back as if she was on fire. _Some things aren't for me to see and that was one of them. _Reaching into his bag Shinji wasn't surprised that Belldandy's gift was a six-pack of energy drinks, Keiichi's was a new lock for his door and a pair of knitting needles with Belldandy's name engraved on them.

"He wants her to be busy with something else if your wondering about this Shin-chan" Santa's mirth filled voice wafted into his mind again. Shaking the creepy feeling that maybe Keiichi was a doomed man, Shinji left the room and headed to the last, Skuld's. As he walked into the room, something odd happened, a robot sprung out of the girl's closet and looked right at him.

"Santa-san…can that thing see me?" Shinji asked nervous as the big headed robot's eyes flashed and inched closer to him. "Santa-san?" Ben-Pei came closer…closer…closer. "I think it's not happy to see me!" About to turn tail and run, the Ben-Pei's arms leapt out and encircled the temporary Santa. Unknown to the boy was that Skuld reprogrammed the machine to reflect her change in affections for him. Ben-Pei was just showing its appreciation for filling the cold place in his master's heart.

As the machine disengaged and rolled back to its closet, Shinji scratched his chin again, "Santa-san are you ok?" but Santa was busy looking around Shinji's room, blanket wrapped around her body to keep from getting to cold. Laughing nervously, Shinji just went back to work, "Sorry about this Skuld-san," reaching into her dream Shinji was amazed at what he saw. Skuld surrounded by machines, all of her own design, her sisters praising her for her achievements and how proud they were for her. It brought a smile to his face to see that he was right, in time she'd be just as good if not more so than her elder siblings.

Pulling his hand out just before his dream self again entered the dream holding a bouquet of roses and a simple gold ring. Reaching into his bag, the real Shinji pulled out the gift of a wrench and ratchet set. So far he was thankful that he'd not gotten the girls he knew the same gift as the one that came out of the bag. "Well that ends this house lets go to the next!"

X- Belldandy is so full of love that she'd choke Keiichi with it I think –X

He was finally starting to get tired after he finished delivering gifts to all the students of his school. After leaving the last house, Usagi's dream blinded him and her gift was a mound of chocolate, he was glad that Santa said it was time to come home. "You've finished all the people I missed before I got hurt Shin-chan so you can just give the gifts to the people at your apartment and then you're done."

Touching the talisman again Shinji found himself again in his bedroom with the sans clothing Santa but thankfully the blanket hid most of her skin. "You've got a hard job Santa-san and I think you don't get enough credit for it." Shinji sat heavily in his chair to get a few moments of peace and to catch his breath.

Sitting on the edge of his bed, Santa just nodded, "Well we work for the real Santa and are given life in his name so we have to pay somehow don't we?" Her shoulders slumped down as she looked away from her temporary prodigy. She'd be asleep again soon, Santa's are only given one day a year to be awake and they worked that whole day. She was actually lucky to have been hurt and to have such a kind man let her rest and experience life like a normal person. "Well since it's so late you can give the first gift to that thing in your closet."

"Kos-Mos is back already?" Shinji asked shocked not realizing how much time had passed since he started his trek. "She didn't see you or anything?" Shinji hoped that was the case because explaining a nude Aoi in his room would be hard even if she wasn't really Aoi, she was still nude.

Blushing lightly Santa stuck her tongue out, "Hid under your bed when she came in and I think she's asleep now. And since she is part angelic in nature she is guaranteed a wish." Getting to her feet, Santa followed behind Shinji as he walked to his closet and pulled open the door. Tinsel and garland clinging to her body, Kos-Mos appeared to be sleeping.

Closing his eyes, it was too hard to look in the faces of those he knew when he touched their hearts, Shinji reached for Kos-Mos. Like every other time, the room was filled with the same pink light as he saw her deepest most wish. What Shinji saw brought tears to his eyes because he knew he couldn't give her that wish. Kos-Mos was walking down the street clad in a white button up shirt and a teal skirt that went down to her white tennis shoes and completely devoid of her technological implants she was fully human.

A man was holding her hand as they walked and though he couldn't make out his features, Shinji could feel the happiness radiating from the pair. He watched them go to a movie, to a bistro, and finally a stroll in the park. It tore his heart to know what she wanted most was something he couldn't give her. Pulling his hand back out, Shinji wasn't shocked to feel the wetness trailing down his cheek. "I don't know how you do it Santa-san, it's so sad to see these dreams and know you can't really deliver them to those who deserve them."

Laying her hand on his shoulder, Santa smiled, "It's just how things are Shin-chan. Not all dreams can be answered but we can make people happy. Give them some part of that happiness that they deserve." She watched the still crying lightly boy reach into the bag and pull out Kos-Mos's gift, neither of them knew what it really was for, but Shinji put the baggy containing several small computer chips on Kos-Mos's charger and shut her door again.

"You said you gave Sasami-san her present already and I gave Rei-san her year subscription to Manga monthly a few houses ago so who is left?" Shinji asked suddenly feeling a little cold. He kept looking at the closed door and didn't know what to say. He saw many dreams this night, most were simple and basic, but a few were heart wrenching for him. The daughter dreaming of seeing her death mother again, the wife dreaming of her departed husband, and countless other hopeless dreams. "I think I'm ready for sleep."

Empathizing with the youth as she too knew the pang of guilt of unable to fulfill dreams and wish, Santa patted his back. "Misato Katsuragi is the last person that you will grant a wish to." Following silently as Shinji walked to Misato's room and stepped into the woman's room, Santa was worried that she scarred the poor child and how she was going to grant his wish. "Wait let me grant your wish first alright?"

"Oh…ok, you need the necklace right?" Shinji asked as Santa nodded. Taking it off and handing it back to Santa, the Santa suit dematerialized from his body and again wrapped around her in its perverse new form. "But I really don't want anything so I don't know what you'll give me."

Her smile grew wider at his words, "Well a lot of boys your age have dreams of being with women they care for…I could take their place for you if you want." Santa got the reaction she was hoping for and saw Shinji's jaw drop and face burn bright red while shaking his hands back and forth. "Kidding Shin-chan Kidding. Now close your eyes and I'll check your dream."

Following Santa's demand Shinji closed his eyes and waiting to feel what all the recipients of his touch felt. It was warm and soothing, Santa's hand as it touched into his dream. Santa felt such warmth from it, such care and love radiating from the dream that she too was brought to tears, but they were tears of joy. It was like joy was turned into a physical form and it wrapped around her. _His dream is to make others happy…to make them feel loved and cared for._ Kissing his cheek softly Santa saw one other thing he wanted, and it was something she could do.

X-X

Waking with a start, Shinji knocked his empty cup over onto the floor but couldn't move to reclaim it. Looking at the mass of purple hair on top of his chest, Shinji guess that Misato had come home and fell asleep on the couch not knowing he was there. He didn't expect that it was Misato's dream to sleep with her beloved Shinji and that her wish was granted. "Guess all that stuff was just a dream…I guess Santa doesn't really exist in the form of Aoi-san."

It made more sense for that to be the case, his whole ordeal as being a substitute Santa being a dream. Misato murmured softly into his chest and wrapped her arms around him tighter and nuzzled him with her nose before falling back into slumber. "Rest well Misato-san cause today is going to be a busy day."

Turning his head back to the balcony Shinji saw something that was impossible something that couldn't be there. Snow! It was snowing! "I…I didn't think it was…" His eyes widened and his face broke open with the biggest smile he'd had in a long time. Snow on Christmas on a planet suffering from permanent summer. _I guess miracles can happen after all._

All around Tokyo-3 people with clean and pure hearts, meaning Asuka didn't get a present, were waking from the best night sleep they had in ages to find an unexpected present waiting them.

And as Shinji made his rounds that day playing the gift giver to all his friends and acquaintances he could sense they were just genuinely happier than usual as he was. The Magi were unable to explain how the city was draped in the slight snow cover that it was but nobody seemed to mind.

It was a good day and though he couldn't tell Shinji had his own personal Santa following around watching him. And as he pulled himself into his bed to get some much deserved rest felt a phantom kiss on his forehead as his eyes closed.

"We'll meet again next Christmas Shin-chan, and every one afterward," Santa spoke softly into his already sleeping ears as she faded away again as all Christmas sprites did.

X-X

Author notes

So that's the X-mas special. Little corny but aren't all Christmas stories corny? Hope you liked this little piece of fluff and I hope you all have a great Holiday season even if you don't believe in any of the religious significance.

Ja Mata

Zentrodie (zentrodie-at-secondimpact-dot-com)


	26. Everybody is a winner

Standard Disclaimer

Wow been a little while since I updated this little monstrosity of mine hasn't it? Well it really is just a time dump story of mine when I wanna write but don't want to worry about the outcome so…I've actually been busy with concluding Divergence and A Past to Forget so this really did get put on the backburner. Well time for some relaxation writing.

X-X

What We Make of It

Chapter 26 – Let the Pageant Begin

Or

It only Gets worse

His stomach clenched tightly as his nerves got the better of him. Sweat trickled down his chin, he didn't move to wipe it off, and more would replace it anyway. Finishing up putting his suit on, Shinji sighed heavily. "This isn't going to be easy it?" he asked the man sitting next to him.

Kaji shrugged, his grin split his face in two, "I think you're over reacting to this little event Shinji-kun. And if I were you I'd not be so quick to turn those girls away." Kaji adjusted his tie and actually frowned a little. Why were all the girls going after Shinji? He was a judge too. But no, all the contestants, both for the Miss Tokyo-3 and Miss Teen Tokyo-3 were heading right to the shy pilot and not the lady killer that he liked to think of himself. "And was that you fraternizing with a contestant right before we go out and start this?"

Blushing slightly, Shinji looked away from Kaji and tried to keep his hands from fidgeting. "Sasami-chan was just wishing me luck is all. Oh and giving me a lunch." In the week since Sasami's little bout of depression much had occurred between them that irked the non-fiancé's. While Shinji still made lunch for all of them, he resigned himself to allowing Sasami to make his. They talked more, joked around, and just became more acquainted with one another. All the while the others took their time as well. Misato, Kos-Mos, and Asuka filled up all the remaining 'alone' time at the apartment. Rei and Shion while he was at Nerv, and school was just a madhouse.

Running his comb through his silver hair, Kozo grinned at the other two male judges. "Are you gentlemen ready to start this thing?" He was old but the gears still worked and Fuyutsuki was more than happy to have been selected as a judge. "And remember keep this professional. The winner of both pageants will be very successful people, so expect them to all pull out the stops at winning." But don't turn them away, Kozo thought to himself. Let them think they got you in there pocket where all they did was ease stress.

Swallowing hard, Shinji almost ran away. _I must not run away I must not run away. _Kaji's hand fell on his shoulder and pulled him up. "Kaji-san?" Shinji asked but Kaji said nothing but led the confused and scared boy out through the curtain to the outdoor stage. The sun temporarily blinded him but it soon cleared.

The auditorium was packed with people. Men wanting to see the most beautiful women from around the world compete. Women wanted to see what they lost to in the earliest elimination rounds, oh and to get a look at a certain male pilot. Some were well dressed and refined, others dirty and slovenly, but all of them were looking at him. "I can't do thi…"

Shinji's voice died in his lips as the two female judges walked out from the other side of the stage and greeted him. "Shinji-san, you're one of the judges too?" Hotaru asked in fake shock. Everybody knew Shinji was going to be a judge, and everybody but Shinji knew that fact as well. Hotaru's complexion darkened as catcalls and hoots erupted from the crowd as she took her place. Her attire a dark purple kimono, her hair done up in a small bun, and a small white tiger lapel on her chest.

Smacking Shinji's back playfully, Utena laughed. "So they did end up roping you into this didn't they? Othori Academy sent me as its representative as their judge. It was supposed to be the head master but he's in jail." A knowing smile was all Utena let slip about her involvement in Akio's dethronement. She's insisted on being a judge after she heard about Shinji's appointment as one as well. She'd be damned if she let those hussies hurt her surrogate little brother so they could win some stupid contest.

"Not going to let Anthy win are you? And why are you in your school uniform?" Shinji chuckled as Utena stumbled at his words. He hit the second reason she wanted to be a judge on the head. "Anyway I guess it doesn't matter, you look good in that uniform."

Wrapping a loving arm around his neck, Hotaru gasping at her forward acts, Utena kissed Shinji's temple. "That's my little brother. Smarter than he's good for." Waving at the crowd, now a large female boo was being heard, Utena gave them all an air kiss.

Clearing his throat, Kozo stepped ahead of the other judges and took the mic in his hand. "Ladies and Gentlemen," he stopped and waited for the audience to quiet down. The show was about to start and it was going to be a good one. As silence gripped the auditorium, Kozo continued. "I'd like to welcome you to the first of what we hope to be the annual Miss Tokyo-3 and Miss Teen Tokyo-3 pageant!"

A round of applause piped through the assembled populace. "I'll be your foreman and one of your judges over the next week of competition. Along with me are your other accomplished judges." Kozo took a step back and gestured to his fellow comrades. "Representing the UN Ryohji Kaji," Kaji stepped forward, flashed his best lady killer smile and was upset with the half felt applause. "Up next representing the teenage populace of our beautiful Tokyo-3, Hotaru Tomo."

Hotaru blushed lightly and waved at the assembly. More adult male calls than Shinji would have liked to hear were heard. Whispering softly into Shinji's ear, Hotaru agreed. "Little creepy having that many old men calling me…it's a shame it wasn't just you." She could be bold too, when a reaction couldn't be made against her anyway.

Kozo gave the hand gesture for quiet and again waited for control to be his. "Coming from Othori Academy and one of the major sponsors of this pageant Utena Tenjou." To Kaji's shock it was girls that started screaming out, louder than they did for him. Utena bowed to them all again and playfully let her arm wrap around Shinji's neck again. Kozo continued speaking, "And representing the Nerv Corporation, and defender of humanity, Shinji Ikari."

Shinji hadn't expected a deafening roar to follow his name, but he got one. As little of an ego that he had, it was stoked by the sheer volume of cries of thanks and adulation. The few panties that ended up on the stage he never saw, and were quickly gathered and hidden. "T-thank you all, I'll do my best."

His smile was long lasting as he looked at Shinji, Kozo was damn proud of that boy. "Well I will be representing the other sponsors. Now your judges will take their seats," Kozo pointed to the judges' box front and center of the stage. After the four of them, he remained on the stage, Kozo continued. "I'll now explain how this will go down. Over the next few days three separate contests will befall our lovely ladies younger and older. Event one is the runway. Each contestant will display herself for our view, dressed however they wish, but must be dressed as nudity is call for immediate expulsion from the pageant."

After his little announcement Kozo had to wait for the crowd to calm down, they wanted nudity as most people in a state of lust did. Once the mass fell into an angry silence, Kozo wiping the sweat off his brow and let out a stressed grown. "The next contest is the swimsuit competition the contestants can either appear here or live via a camera feed from any beach they wish. And lastly is the talent competition." He was looking forward to that one too, but Kozo hoped that he'd have one maybe to private showings. He wasn't to old yet by far. "On the end of each competition those contestants that don't meet the required score to continue will be asked to leave, its winner take all and let the best, brightest, and beautiful reign supreme!" Kozo dropped his mic and gestured to the curtain which dropped reviling first round of the Miss Teen Tokyo-3 pageant was about to begin!

X- Kozo lives for this kinda of thing if you didn't know –X

In the large hallway leading to the stage the teenage contestants were all lined up in their finery and waiting for their turn to dazzle the populace. Asuka had up until now believed that she'd be a shoe to win this little mortal farce, but seeing everybody all decked out, she had a doubt. _When in doubt make others doubt more._ She thought as she readjusted her blood red cape. The cape now was no longer concealing her body letting her black leather corset show through. "So which one of you is going to lose first?" Asuka called out at the assembled.

With much of Tokyo-3's female students in the contest, and from school all around Japan and a few other countries, Asuka received a large number of angry looks. Some were so nervous they were about to wet themselves, but others had confidence on Asuka's level. Minako was one of them. Sauntering up to demon, she laughed, "I'd say you are with that outfit. Who would like dominatrix gear let alone wear it to a beauty pageant." Holding her hand to her mouth she laughed shrilly. "If you want to win you go for traditional," she twirled around and her low-cut red evening dress, tight in the right places and loose in the right places, spun out from her.

Rei, adorned with fake cat ears and a maid outfit walked over to them, "Well a lot of them are going to be nerds so I'm going for the fanboy vote, Nyaa!" She mowed and held her hand to her nose in a cat scratch pose, her latest copy of 'UFO Princess Walkyrie' slipping out of her pocked. All was for her Muuko-Dono!

The man at the doorway flipped a switch and the 'ready light' turn on and the girls quieted down. It was show time and they were all rivals. Asuka looked through the curtain with her demonic powers and saw her vassal, "With my vassal as a judge there is no way I can lose. And when I crush you girls he'll be waiting for me in the winners circle."

The contestant's stunned faces all registered Asuka's rant as something it wasn't. For one their was no winners circle, but the idea of Shinji as a prize was more than enough to fire them up that last notch. Money, fame, AND Shinji for winning? Plus for such a mighty trio of prizes a little underhandedness wouldn't be unexpected now would it? None of the girls thought it a 'bad thing' so and as such started planning on how to ruin their rivals.

Skuld and Sasami stepped up to the door, Skuld was first and Sasami second followed by a slew of girls they didn't know. Both girls felt the unnatural essence in the other, their eyes locked and they nodded. "Good luck," Skulk said extending her hand.

Sasami took it and shook it, her own smile just as fake as Skuld's. "To the winner go the spoils." The grins left their faces as the doorman gestured for Skuld to take her place. Sasami nodded to her ace-in the hole, or in this case the floor, Ryo-oki. The cabbit, half phased into the ground knew what to do.

Kozo's voice boomed over the speakers, "Welcome our first contestant Skuld…hm…no last name given. Anyway this little lady is sporting a very unique outfit. Red trimmed with pink inlays, and is that a…hammer?" The other girls just looked at one another and shrugged, who knew Skuld would have just worn her normal Goddess attire?

Skuld walked on shaky legs as flashbulbs burned and the lights overhead made her sweat. Ahead of her was that odd boy that she had met at her sisters wedding and she had such a lovely dream about over Christmas break. Waving to him with a big smile, she didn't notice the small brown head materialize in the floor, Ryo-oki had struck. To be more specific Skuld struck Ryo-Oki with her foot and with her nerves already stressed took a stumble and fell off the stage into the crowd.

"Oh and it looks like with our first contestant we have our first eviction," Kozo said with a hint of shame. He looked down at Skuld, her dress pooled above her head as she lay upside down on the side of the stage, eyes spinning, he sighed. Belldandy and Urd had to erase all the photos of the dazed goddess who in her fret forgot the bra that matched her dress. "Well let that be a warning to you girls to be careful on the stage."

Sasami bite back on her finger as she witnessed what she had wrought. _Didn't expect that big of a trip but I guess it worked. _Hearing her name called, Sasami stepped forward in her traditional Jurian kimono, hair just like Tsunami's. Used to the lights of paparazzi on her home planet, this was nothing new to her. She dazzled the crowd and sprouted a faint blush when she saw the adoring eyes of her fiancé. _Damn straight this was the right thing to do. _

X-X

For the next hour nothing really spectacular happened. Many hopeful teenage girls promenaded on the stage for the viewing pleasure of the attendees and those watching on television. Some girls stumbled and fell, but none exposed themselves, Skuld reminded them as to why. A few broke down crying and ran off the stage, the stress to much for them. Then it came to Asuka's turn. Things were a little different for that one.

"Meat bags get ready to be wowed," She said to the girls yet to go, Rei being the next in line. Pulling at the air above her cape, Asuka fashioned a cowl to go along with it. In a last moment change altered the color of the back to be abyssal black and the inside volcanic red. Stepping out from behind the curtain, Asuka flexed her left hand and the lights around the stage dimmed. Her body was enveloped in a haze of red fire and heat.

Being a princess, Asuka's poise and grace were hard to match and she all but danced to the front of the stage, her eyes locked on Shinji's with what could pass for loving affection. Her fangs glistening as the world seemed to dim and blacked till all that was light was the stage and her being the most radiant. "Mortals behold beauty beyond comprehension!"

At that moment in time, she was right. Her cape fluttered outward due to her heat she was exuding. Her hair curled around her neck as she sauntered over to the end of the stage, and leaned over giving her vassal a titillating view. The words she spoke only she and other Astral beings could fathom. "_Tra Inngo Vassal enta Asuka vorsh dinnah." _

Belldandy clenched her chest and paled a little at the words while Urd felt a heat growing in her chest. Urd still remembered she owed that boy more than he could guess with his little present, but what this demon was doing was unthinkable. Belldandy had paled because Asuka was pledging herself to her vassal, giving herself body and soul to him. Demons with love, a dream Belldandy had always hoped for, and now she was seeing it.

Leaning closer to Shinji, who was doing the same on an uncontrollable whim, Asuka was going to seal her pledge with a kiss. And would have if Utena hadn't drawn her sword, not her normal one as Anthy wasn't present to pull it out of her, but a sword she'd brought just for this situation. "I think that's as far as you go Miss Ash and Cinder." The point of the blade was to Asuka's throat, and as quickly as the moment came it passed. Light returned to the stadium and Asuka turned around and walked back to where she entered.

"You're up angel girl let's see you top that one?" Asuka's body trembled inside. She didn't know what came over her, or how she had so suddenly given herself to her vassal. Was it seeing him look at the other girls that did it? Jealousy or maybe fear? The demoness didn't know all she knew was that she made the right choice.

To those men that Rei tried to reach, and there are many with God of Universe-Z included, Rei's outfit and plan had worked and won over the shocked crowd. Walking out on all fours, a fake tail swaying behind her, Rei batted around as a real cat would. When she got to the end of the stage, looked her cherished one in the eye, licked her hand suggestively and preened, rubbed up against the microphone stand and meowed. The otaku fanboys when nuts and rushed the stage. It took the full defense squad to keep them away from their new Goddess Rei-chan.

X-Come on Rei really is the Fanboy goddess, admit it-X

The second half of the Teenage portion of the day went as expected. No more massive shocks or doses of perversion. Only fly in the ointment was when Washu paraded around in her Nurse outfit and the look she gave Shinji caused Hotaru to cringe into him, afraid not for herself but what that freak had in mind for Shinji. Washu's mindset was the same she had for Tenchi when he saw that outfit. _Oh do I really want to get every type of sample from him. I do have magic fingers. _The adults that knew Washu expected to see her again in the Adult side of the pageant.

Kozo back in center stage, bowed to the last girl to walk off, Tsukino Usagi. Usagi had worn her Millennium Princess dress and left the chastest of men with nose bleeds, save Shinji of course. "Well I believe its time for what you've all been waiting for. The start of the Miss Tokyo-3 pageant. No offense to the lovely teenagers, but this is where the real show begins!" Kozo knowingly stepped out of the way of an odd bomb, a bolt of fire, and a bevy of Senshi attacks. _Kids nowadays have no manners or sense of humor. _

The male audience let themselves be heard as Kozo again postured and gestured to the changed sign. The teenagers would be good eyecandy in a few years when they were old enough to consider courting, but these upcoming women were all fair game! Kaji elbowed Shinji, "So looks like you got a busy night ahead of you, those lil girlies all looked like they wanted to score some private points."

"What are you…" Shinji started but Utena covered his ears and Hotaru shut his mouth. Unable to hear anything, Shinji wondered why Kaji paled. Then paled further, became almost translucent, and finally broke into a heavy sweat. Hotaru and Utena were going to protect Shinji from such harlots at the cost of the harlot's life. Having the power of Dios, Utena, and the power to destroy the universe, Hotaru, Shinji had the best guardians. "Um…ok?"

Both girls took an arm and linked theirs with it, and in unison said, "Don't worry about that pervert Shin-chan. Just watch the show and don't let yourself be led astray." Hotaru wanted him for herself, while Utena wouldn't have minded her little brother live with her and her lover again. _Variety is the spice of life, and I've never liked the touch of any man save his. _

The lights intensified as the sun sank and the evening was coming onto them. The night was the time for adults, and night was now upon them. Misato was the first to step out, clad in her military attire marched to the mic and looked down at her ward. Kaji thought it was him she was looking at, hoped so because the enormity of affection in that look could choke a mule. Misato's professional look vanished as she tore off the uniform revealing…well a very revealing tube top and her normal at home shorts. The blood loss was great in the stands. "I'm in charge of you remember that," Misato winked at Shinji and blew him a kiss that Utena intercepted metaphorically and smashed into the ground.

A slew of women aiming for the prize solely by bagging the male judges found themselves in a little situation. The first two set their sights on Kaji and when they gave him there best seductive smile saw that his eyes became glazed over and drool escape his lips. Asuka's slaves weren't allowed any salvation or fake love, so when offered to them they become drooling idiots. When Shinji was the target, well things were a little more complicated. Utena had been around when the lighting was put up and with a little help from Kos-Mos, who Utena found an odd sense of kinship with, set a trap for those ladies.

Any woman that tried on the stage to gain Shinji's affection by use of physical means found themselves disqualified. The lighting would heat up, thanks to a small plasma beam, and their clothing would just melt away leaving a very embarrassed and nude would be contestant. Not that the men in the audience minded the slew of nude beauties, but after the forth the contestants caught on. Now seduction during the contest that was best saved for after the days events.

Kos-Mos's turn was something that was hard on the Android. No specialty clothing would fit her without heavy modification, which left them worthless. Shamed by her bulky design and in her mind hideous appearance, she didn't know why she was there. Walking out onto the stage, her heavier than normal girl footfalls echoed so loud in her mind she was deafened by it. Seeing her master looking at her, Kos-Mos almost lost her will to keep going on with the charade.

But when he started clapping, leading the audience to join in, Kos-Mos's smile beamed outward and captured even more of the Otaku hearts. As long as she didn't lose in this round she'd decimate in the others. Her tour of duty served, Kos-Mos rounded the corner back behind the curtain, "That was more difficult than I would have believed it could be," she said more to herself than anybody else.

Urd heard her though and gave a few rueful claps herself, "I was hoping you would chicken out. Just by being here you have a little more sway with Shinji than the rest of use. I don't know what you did to him but that kid just saves you so much," Urd's jealous rant was cut short by her younger sister.

Knowing a battle was going on around her, Belldandy did what she could to calm those involved. "Now Nee-san don't say such things to Kos-Mos-san. She is not receiving any sort of special treatment for Ikari-san, and he is right to treat her kindly as she is his family anyway." Belldandy's smile was honest and kind, as always. "And its not like a machine can marry a human anyway so Skuld-chan still has a chance," Belldandy's eye rose an inch, "or yourself if you continue to think that way."

Shocked that her thoughts were so transparent, Urd just balked at her sister, "Bell how could you…you've changed since you and Keiichi got married." Urd's loving and doormat sister wasn't quite the doormat anymore. And the morning, afternoon, and nightly sounds from the married couple's room was more proof that Belldandy wasn't the same anymore. "And where did the can opener go?"

Pointing over to Kos-Mos, Belldandy sighed, "Talking with your Mother. It seems Hild-San entered the contest too." Belldandy had nothing against the CEO of hell but the overt amount of sexual energy Hild radiated was something her sister and herself would have a hard time overcoming. "As for you Nee-san, just don't do anything to try and taint that boy. Strong forces are at work protecting him for reasons I don't know."

Urd wouldn't be beaten by some battery operated toy, or a demon, or her mother, or anybody! She was the goddess of love damn it! Sure her own love life was a little down, but if what she heard about a two week vacation with the judge of your choice was real then she'd change that.

The rumor mill about the 'undocumented' prize had spread and changed. Starting with a kiss from the judge it was now a two week vacation, and the sponsors were actually considering it.

Contestant after contestant made their way down the runway for the easiest part of the pageant. Washu did stun the adults by showing up in her adult form, only to be outdone by Tsunami who Sasami allowed to enter on her own. Shion did her best attempt at not looking like a gear head, and Ritsuko was ready for phase 2 as she walked down in her swimsuit under her lab coat.

Finally it was down to the last contestant to show her stuff and bear it all for the hungry crowd. After Hild's near striptease on stage, remembering a little Christmas dream herself, the men were about to tear the place apart.

Attim was never more afraid of anything in her life, save her near escape from her creators. Adorn in her red leather jacket and tight fitting black body armor, she just watched as Hild sauntered off the stage and winked at her. She heard the woman say something about her choice in eye shadow but didn't know if it was a compliment or slam. "I can't do this…I can't let him see me."

He might remember. He could see her for the freak she was. A fake person with only twenty years or so of life left. Surely he'd spurn her for her lies and selfishness. But she wanted him to see her! As much as she lied to herself and said she didn't, Attim pleaded for Shinji to know of her, see her, and possibly care for her. _Fear doesn't suit me! Those other weaker women have no problem with this neither should I. _Slapping her face to break out of her self imposed fears. Attim stood up straight, her head high and she walked out.

Silence greeted her as she stood at the end of the platform. No sound, a pin could be heard hitting the ground. Attim didn't let it faze her, but she put her hands behind her head and gave her waist a little twist. Still nothing, her eyes snaked down to see Shinji looking up at her. The girl next to him, this Utena, was also looking at her and intently.

It was Utena that broke the silence but standing up and shouting, "Holy hell that girl is freaking beautiful! Shin-chan who is she I mean…those eyes! That hair…those breasts!! I'm in love!" Utena's arm around Shinji's neck pulled him closer to her center of mass as the pink haired woman pointed at Attim and dapped the drool off her lips. Anthy would be pissed at her but sometimes one can't help themselves in the sight of Aphrodite in human form appears. "You sister are a in!"

The crowd light up like a firecracker after Utena broke the silence. Attim M-Zak was one of the finest women that the audience had ever seen. Something about the confidence yet fear mingled in that moment to bring out all of her hidden beauty for all the world to see. Seeing her savior nodding at Utena's words, adoration and awe in his eyes. Attim bowed to the cheering masses and phased through the floor and vanished underneath the stage. Her body quivering with joy and the sense of victory.

Forcing his body to work, Kozo got back up on the stage. "Well…with that last and defiantly worth waiting for entry I bid you all goodnight. The results will be posted tomorrow for the entire world to see. And as all of you know we'll be seeing more of Attim M-Zak. As for the rest well you'll just have…to…" Kozo's voice dwindled in his mouth, lost like sounds in a tube.

Shinji saw the old man's body sway a few times and his eyes pull back so all he could see was the whites. His mind was reeling, _He said Attim M-Zak, but that was the girl…how…they do look the same age not withstanding. _But something else was wrong, as Shinji tried to put the circle into the square hole in his mind, Kozo stood in an odd angle. "Fuyutsuki-san is something wrong?" he asked sensing something he hadn't felt in a long time and it scared him on a level he couldn't put into words.

His voice returned but it didn't sound like him, it was too high pitched, to feminine, and also to feline. "I'm sorry but we have one last minute entry, one that I don't think you'd want to miss!" That voice sent Asuka and Hild on edge because they knew it was Felecia's.

The center of the stage light up as green fire erupted out of nothing. A circle of green flame first then the lines of the inverted pentagram formed and out of the flame she came. Morrigan stood tall, her wings wrapped around her body at first then flexed out. She'd healed completely and she wouldn't be denied what she wanted. Swaying from where she teleported herself, her perfect chest swaying and bounced with every movement, Morrigan saw her target. "Shin-chan," she cooed into the air.

All of those that had seen her last, hovering over a drained Ikari Shinji, and then a beaten mass of flesh as Kos-Mos broke a tanker ship with her body. Misato's hand went to her side for her gun but found it gone, as it should have been. Attim was to far down to notice anything, and Kos-Mos's body burnt with a violent blue flame the same color of her eyes. She clenched her fingers. "I broke you once, and I'll take pleasure in breaking you again." But with her so close to Shinji how could she do anything fast enough?

Getting down on one knee, Morrigan extended her perfect arm to the judge she wanted. Hotaru rushed forward only to have Morrigan flex her other hand and the petite girl fell asleep. Utena was thrown against the wall and knocked out. Morrigan's plan had been perfect, she'd been waiting and watching for so long now.

Under Morrigan spell, she was a succubus after all so even he couldn't resist her full power, Shinji took her hand in his. He felt cold, he remembered her holding him similarly to this and then blackness.

"My lovely Shin-chan, how your blood tasted, hot fresh and powerful. I had no idea how much I longed for it, and how it changed me." Morrigan kissed the hand she held lovingly. "_Tra Inngo Shinji enta Morrigan vorsh dinnah." _Morrigan's words were said without hesitation as she ended her declaration with a kiss.

Getting back to his feat, Kozo shook out the cobwebs and waved at Morrigan. "And uh, I guess that was the last contestant." The succubus stood up, the judge she had just pledged herself too frozen in place at her kiss. Giving her best pose, the crowd ate it up and asked for seconds. Never doubt a succubus's ability to get the male side to back her.

As the cries died, and Morrigan felt the murderous intent of oh so many other jealous women, winked at her man and teleported away.

"Drive safely everybody and we'll see you here in two days for the swimsuit competition!" Kozo cried trying to finish his bit before those angry eyes turned to him. He didn't feel so much like sampling the talent anymore.

X- You didn't Think Morrigan would be gone forever did you? –X

Author notes.

Ah I forgot how energizing this story could be. I've been writing a lot more serious and darker stuff over the last few months that this thing is a breath of fresh air!!

For those of you that care the novel is moving along at a decent pace so eventually I'll try and get something done with it!

Hope ya liked this chapter and continue to support this random thing.

Ja Mata

Zentrodie (zentrodie –at-secondimpact-dot-com)


	27. Messy is good

Standard Disclaimer

Yo people! More dumb funny if you like.

X-X

What We Make of It

Chapter 27 – The unofficial pageant starts

Or

RUN FOR YOUR VIRGINITY SHINJI!

Walking up in an unfamiliar bed was always awkward for Shinji, but since it was not only the largest bed that he'd ever slept in but the most comfortable it made things easier. Sitting up and stretching, Shinji was still impressed by the since of his hotel room. "They really went all out for this pageant didn't they," he said to himself. The night had happened so fast that he still had hard time accepting it really happened. Getting out of his temporary bed and heading to the dresser to get his close, he didn't know that this was going to be the only moment's peace he received the whole day. Attim had stationed herself outside his door the whole night to insure nobody entered, but once he left it all bets were off.

It had official begun the night before, with Morrigan's entry into the pageant and the chaos it created. Asuka wasn't very forthcoming with explaining what Morrigan had said to him, as it meant she'd have to admit she said and done the same thing. But regardless of which demon pledged eternal loyalty to what human, the females that knew Morrigan were out for blood. They spent the whole night looking for where the bitch had gone to or how to find it. The hunt ended in failure and they all slept uneasily in their own rooms, far less grand than Shinji's. The judges were privy to the five start hotel while the contestants were holed up in the motel next door, and it was a two star. Did that keep them from visiting the judge's hotel? Hell no.

Kaji and Kozo had a busy night of entertaining some of the less morally wholesome contestants, while Hotaru and Utena used the onsite spa to relax. The bulk of the women, young and older, had been turned away at gunpoint by Attim. It was her way of making up for her failure the day before, and the idea of her Shinji making hot passionate love in his four poster bed with anybody but her didn't sit well in her mind.

Finishing the last button, Shinji checked himself out in the mirror. "So today is the PR day where the judges get to meet the contestants huh…" he didn't like how that sounded. He wasn't to good with meeting new people, let alone the most beautiful women in the world, so he was more than a little intimidated. Giving himself some confidence slaps to his cheeks, he walked to the door, slipped his shoes on, and opened it. Nobody was there, it was an empty hall. Pulling out the schedule Kozo gave him, Shinji read the first planned PR event, "Breakfast?"

At the sound of Shinji's door opening, Attim phased through the floor to give him privacy. The hotel had the most up to date surveillance so she made her way there to watch him and insure his safety. No PR events for her, not that she wanted to go through them anyway. She had a few hundred million attendees to worry about and watch for.

As Shinji made his way down the hall, the first debutante made her move having spent all night waiting outside his room, luckily out of Attim's sight the whole time. Rei ran up and latched her arm around Shinji's "Shin-chan come and eat with me ok?" Rei still had her cat ears on but was no longer in the maid outfit. Sanada's infatuation for her Princess still fueling Rei's mind but replaced with a Prince. "I don't want to eat alone," she pouted cutely.

Trying to discreetly look for the headband that connected to the ears, Shinji wasn't going to let Rei try and use him for a scratching post again, Shinji smiled. "I'd be honored if you'd escort me Rei-chan, we haven't had a lot of time to spend together lately." And Shinji missed it. Rei was the first friend he made when he came to Tokyo-3, sure she was a little weird with her personality shifts, but he loved her just the same. Getting a better hold of her arm, Shinji lead the girl to the cafeteria laden with reporters and photographers.

Rei gave a good show by kissing the young judges cheek on camera, and pissed a whole slew of girls off. But Rei couldn't keep his attention all day, and the moment Rei turned her head somebody else would snag him, and put a judge in her pocket.

X- Not enough Rei lately! –X

When Morrigan proved to have effectively given them the slip, our heroines opted to do the next best thing. Question Asuka about what Morrigan and she said to Shinji. Asuka wasn't very receptive of the idea and would have fried all of the meddlesome humans into nice piles of ash and cinders but however the humans weren't normal humans. Sure Misato would be easy, but Kos-Mos, Washu, and Sasami would be more than she could handle alone, so she ran.

She didn't count on Washu however being able to teleport faster than she could, nor her demon sealing technology. "How was I supposed to know your daughter was part demon!" Asuka yelled at the temporarily adult Washu who was preening over her victory.

"Never underestimate the great Washu or her ability to create things that the universe shouldn't have!" Washu declared proudly as her Washu-O's popped out of her shoulders and congratulated her for a fine victory over a teenager. "As for my daughter, you should have known as I got the DNA for her from your mother."

Naaga had very much wanted to turn the vicious Ryoko against her nemesis the petit breasted Lina Inverse but Washu didn't let such things happen.

Rubbing her temples, Misato wanted answers sooner rather than later and she also wanted a nice nap. Running around all night on a homicidal bender that didn't provide the homicide made her tired. "Asuka we know you said something so Shinji in whatever language that was so just tell us what it means." Sure it sounded like nails on a chalk board, but it had to mean something. Asuka had moved to kiss her Shinji after saying it and Morrigan did!

Her stomach opening wide to expose her X-Cannon to the light of day, Kos-Mos pointed it at Asuka. "I suggest you assist us as quickly as possible, you wouldn't like to experience my innerverse." Nobody commented on Kos-Mos's cerulean blue eyes or the sudden appearance of emotion in her voice. "It would not be pleasant," she added and the crystal shimmered and hummed.

Bound with Shinto wards, Crosses, and her legs incased in an ice like substance, Asuka weighed her options. Lying was always good, conning them another good one, but part of her ached against denying what she did. It felt right to have done it, she felt good…in an evil way. "Fine I'll tell you if you let me go," the ice was chaffing her fire.

Smiling sweetly, Tsunami leaned over and looked Asuka in the eye. Asuka chilled even more as Tsunami snapped her whip. "You'll tell us then gauging on what you say we'll consider it. Sasami wouldn't mind one less contestant to worry about." And a very high up contestant too. The preliminary scores were starting to come in and Asuka was very high on the charts.

"Fine! Alright if that's what you want," Asuka grumbled under her breath. Being on the receiving end of torture wasn't fun for her, she wasn't a masochist. Her cheeks burnt bright red, but not from fire. "I…we pledged ourselves to him." Why was she so damn embarrassed by it! It had been on impulse but it felt so right at the time, and still did. Of course she'd have liked to make good on it by teleporting into his room that night but she'd been to busy running.

Washu took a step back, confusion actually noticeable on her face, "Pledged? What does that mean?" It could mean any number of things, and with Morrigan doing it to it must not be a good thing. "Not going to kill him are you?"

Misato's hand pulled the manner back of her gun, Tsunami clenched her fist around the hilt of her whip, and Kos-Mos's X-Buster charged loudly. Asuka's face was totally red now, "NO! I…it means…I gave myself to him. You humans might think of it as servitude. Morrigan and I both promised to be his from now until eternity ends. Why Morrigan did it I don't know, likely a trick." But once the vow was given it couldn't be rescinded, what could the Succubus be thinking?

Sliding her gun back into the holster, Misato laughed. "Oh hell are you kidding me? This whole time you've been holding out on us over some little bull like this?" Shinji couldn't like Asuka like that anyway so no need to worry. "I'm going to get some sleep, Asuka I suggest you clear this up before Shinji gets the wrong idea."

Kos-Mos had already sealed up her X-Buster and was walking to the door behind Misato. "I will find Master, according to his schedule he should be ending his breakfast now." She'd join him for the after events and to request he assist her in installing her Christmas present, she was to timid to do it alone.

Washu looked to Tsunami, but her compatriot sister Goddess had already fled the scene. "Asuka you didn't lie to us about this did you?" Washu asked genuinely concerned. She could see the chemistry between the Demoness and her favorite little test subject and the betrothed to her favorite Jurian. _If she pushes on him she could have him and I don't know why. _Judging from Shinji's personality, Washu had thought Asuka wouldn't be his type, but the tapes she had proved her wrong. "This pledge isn't something else?"

Rubbing her now freed legs, Asuka shot back hotly. "No! I meant every word of it. He is my vassal but I am his servant. I…" Asuka couldn't say the word, never thought she'd be able to and as yet still couldn't. She wanted to say she loved him, but her body wouldn't let her. Demons weren't supposed to love, it was something that only the light was supposed to have. She lived in darkness, was born from it, how could she believe she 'loved.'

Washu heard enough, she had to press Shinji and Sasami together faster. A race of demonic super children running at the devil's behalf wouldn't do Washu a lick of good. Teleporting away, Washu left the confused Demoness to stew in her uncertainty and confusion. Asuka wanted to be with Shinji more than ever now, he'd awakened these damnable feelings in her so he had to take responsibility.

X-X

By the time Kos-Mos made it to the cafeteria she had missed Shinji by a good twenty minutes, the cameras however were present to take plenty of pictures of the fine melding of human and machine. Shinji wasn't technically even in the hotel any longer. As he finished eating and catching up with Rei a non descript page ran up to him telling him he had a phone call in his room. The mange-file wanted to go with him, and several other would be seducers as well, but Shinji said he'd be right back and not to worry.

Getting back to his room, Shinji felt an odd pulse on the other side of the door. He didn't know what it was, but opened the door regardless. The moment he stepped through the threshold Attim's alarms exploded. Shinji was gone. In the tiny universe Shinji didn't know he was in, he heard the phone ringing loudly. Picking up the receiver, "Hello Ikari Shinji speaking."

Nothing returned his voice for several moments. A clicking sound followed by the sound of a modem and then silence again. "Hello is anybody there?" Shinji asked again. Maybe they had grown tired of waiting for him and hung up right as he picked up. But then why the strange sounds? "Hello?" he tried one last time.

"Is this really Shinji Ikari," the voice asked finally. Shinji knew he heard it before but couldn't place it easily. "The same Shinji Ikari that is the judge for the Tokyo-3 pageants?" It was a definite female voice, and it had a husky tone to it, labored even.

Racking his brain to place the voice to a face, Shinji continued to half think half speak. Maybe if he was fully thinking he'd not have answered as he did. "Yes that is me. Can I help you with something, but remember I can't cheat and let anybody win without trying." He'd been asked by many people already to do so. Men offered him money, drugs, and even the women themselves if he let them win. He turned them all away, some in disgust. _How could anybody try and give away a person! It's shameful._

The voice sounded delighted to hear what but had one last question for the boy. "Are you also the Shinji Ikari that had assisted a Santa this last Christmas?" Hild had her small doubts about the dream's originator, but was ninety-nine percent sure that the Shinji Ikari in question was talking to her.

His mind still trying to shed itself of the disgust he felt for those men that offered lives to him for a chance at a contest, Shinji wasn't even hearing the voice on the phone. "Yeah that was me." The Aoi-Santa had forbad him from telling that it was him that had played Santa for her, but in his state Shinji hadn't thought of the consequences.

"Thank you for your honesty Shin-chan," Hild cooed over the line before it went dead. She wanted to thank this mortal for his little gift, and to confirm something else she felt when she saw him at the wedding. Unlike the lesser goddesses and demons, Hild could use any medium to travel through, and since she created the mini-universe could simply teleport inside, but she wanted something with a little more taste. As Shinji set the received down and sat down on the bed to think about what just happened, Hild made her move.

The room darkened, the lights turned from hard white to a soft yellow, basking the room in a mellow glow. Before Shinji could move to try and turn the lights off and on to fix the issue, an archaic symbol began to form on the ground in front of him. It was made of darkness, pure darkness, but still appeared to give off a light. It was hypnotic and Shinji couldn't pull his eyes away from it. Once formed the central markings bent down into the floor as if an invisible weight was pressing it down deeper down until it broke open. From that pit Hild ascended to greet the boy that gave her the only thing she wished for in this world. A chance to show her daughter the love she wanted, and to receive it.

No air seemed to get into or out of his throat he was so captivated by the scene. Finally able to place the voice on the phone to its rightful owner, Shinji mouthed the word. "Hild-san." He'd have said it but as Hild finished her ascent, Shinji saw she'd reverted to wearing her demoness attire. Some things have beauty because of form, others are beautiful because of the times, and an infinite other ways to judge beauty. Right now Shinji was seeing the beauty of something forbidden.

Sauntering over to the prone boy, Hild caressed his cheek tenderly. "My, my Shin-chan are you happy to see your Hild-chan?" she whispered into his ear. She didn't need to do this to earn a judge, it didn't even occur to her. In the brief contact with his flesh she felt power rush through her. _Such power in such a docile and caring thing. My the universe has a funny sense of humor. _ Drinking in the intoxicating power that Morrigan had months before, Hild's caress stopped as she cupped Shinji's face in her palms. "I'm here to thank you for the wonderful gift you gave my daughter and myself this year. Normally Urd gets a bottle of saki and I get a lump of coal. Demons don't warrant gifts."

Her eyes weren't hard at all, they were soft, Shinji noticed. Her star gleamed with a hidden light and Shinji could feel the soothing warmth from her hands. "I just…wanted to make people happy," he said finally as Hild inched closer. Eyes never leaving his and he forced himself to keep that contact. To sway down he'd be seeing something that Hild wanted him to see. Just how little of her chocolate colored skin was exposed. "You don't…don't have to thank me at all."

Her hands moved before Shinji had a moment to notice it. Now laced behind his head, trapping him between her arms and her face, Hild smiled. "I knew you'd say that Shin-chan. But what if your Hild-chan wants to thank you anyway?" Slowly inching in closer and closer, Shinji's chronically ill libido squeaked out the tiniest bit of lust. Hild felt it and was astonished it was so small. It was a pride point of hers, getting men excited. Never had she scored so low on a man, and she had done her thing on the strictest of Zen Monks in Tibet. All had been putty in her hand, yet this boy who she wanted to see her as such was almost nothing, a weak match in a windstorm.

Feeling Hild rub her nose back and forth against his, so silky soft, Shinji closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Why was this woman playing such a mean game with him? Didn't she say she wanted to thank him and yet she was teasing him in such a way. "Hild-san I accept your thanks, that's all I need. I'm glad I could make Urd and yourself happy." The looks on their faces during the dream had warmed his heart, as well as hurt it. A mother child reunion that he'd never be able to have.

Letting out a light chuckle as the lust she felt drained away making her wonder if it wasn't her own she had felt and not his. She had lost, she wouldn't be able to give herself to the boy without taking his innocents away and even as a demon she didn't want to do that. Kissing him passionately Hild changed her plan. Pulling back as she felt what Morrigan hadn't noticed at first, Hild understood why the succubus had changed. "Shin-chan, if you ever need somebody to talk to you just call mama-Hild and I'll be there." And if you ever get an itch that you'd like scratched I'll be watching you and give you a dream you'll never forget.

Eyes still shut, Shinji's sensations had been overwhelmed by the sure bliss in Hild's lips. He hadn't really kissed somebody like that before, and Hild had years of experience. "Hild-san?" he asked but nothing responded. When he opened his eyes the CEO of hell was gone, and Attim's security force was knocking on the door. _Mama-Hild…I like the sound of that._ Shinji thought with a small grin.

Back in Hell, Hild ran her tongue over her lips as she analyzed the energy the boy had flowed into her. It was liquid joy, happiness in an energy form, and he exuded it from his pores. His will and want to make others happy created it, yet he couldn't share in its effects. "And Morrigan drank it in its purest form," Hild laughed loudly. Hild herself had been tempted to change her stance on increasing the kiss but left as quick as the thought hit her. "What must Morrigan have felt drinking it in…" a shudder snaked its way down Hild's back. She didn't want to know as it was obviously very addictive, and it had driven the biggest bitch in Hell to pledge herself to him. "Maybe I should take a little vacation on Earth," Hild mused.

X- This isn't X-rated so sorry peeps but no hot Hild/Shinji action –X

After a brief stint in the security office where he had to give a detailed report of where he had been for the last hour, Shinji was released back into the general population. He didn't really have much to say to the man asking him questions, Attim was invisible behind Shinji listening to every word, so they let him go. Shinji couldn't rightly say that a woman appeared out of an invisible hole in his room, proceeded to hug him and finally kiss him before vanishing. He didn't want to get his own padded cell yet. He was greeted by two lovely ladies however once he walked out of the make shift security office.

"Hey bro. Are you causing problems already?" Utena asked as she and Anthy finally caught up with their surrogate little brother. Anthy had to discipline her life partner for the little incident involving Utena and Attim. The bronze beauty wasn't very keen on sharing the pink haired woman with anyone, and Utena had to be reminded…and again. Not that Utena minded in the slightest.

Bowing respectfully to the charming boy, Anthy linked her arm with his left while Utena took the right. "We will be your armed protection for the remainder of the evening Shinji-kun," Anthy said with a giggle. It was a private joke for just the three of them, as to the everybody else Utena appeared un-armed. They wouldn't dream that Anthy was housing the weapon that would be used to cut them down. "Did you want to get some supper or did you want to retire early?"

Going back to his room didn't really sound like a good idea, considering what he just did there, so food was sounding good. "I could get something to eat…but no curry ok? Don't want another repeat of Utena Himamiya or Anthy Tenjou incident, once in my life is enough thanks." The trio laughed at the memories of the explosive curry incident. Walking and chatting contently towards the next and last PR event for the day, the first day was easy as most of the contestants hadn't been eliminated yet, Utena flexed her powers of defense.

While Shinji had never once yet noticed it, several contestants had big plans for the shy boy. Utena watched them running from every which way as they walked and would signal for Anthy to distract their brother. It wouldn't do any good for the kind hearted boy to see Utena dispense justice. So as girl after girl turned a corner and came at them Anthy would point to a painting or sculpture that lined the decadent hallways while Utena administered swift brutal justice. Nerve pinches, chloroform, and in one case tossing a cup of water on a certain Chinese martial artist Utena wasn't about to let her brother get used and abused by some hussy.

"So how is it to actually be part of the contest Anthy-san, it must be hard to be seen by so many people," Shinji asked the coquettish woman on his side. Anthy always seemed to be the more laid back and quiet type to Shinji, the polar opposite of Utena which was why Shinji thought they worked well together. "I wouldn't be able to do anything like that and yet you looked so beautiful in that red dress of yours."

Giving Shinji a light tap on the head as they sat down at the head table, more flashbulbs going off all the while, Utena chuckled. "No hitting on my Anthy Shinji-kun, I wouldn't want to risk fighting you again over her." Sinking into the plush chair, Utena ordered a steak and potato dinner while Anthy and Shinji requested Miso soup and fish.

Luckily the first day's PR events was just photo ops of the contestants and judges eating and interacting with one another, the real tough ones were on day two and three, so Shinji could give his undivided attention to his would be sisters. "I'm never dueling you again nee-san. You'd lose on purpose and then I'd have to marry Anthy-san."

Sipping her broth, Anthy looked unphased by the comment, "You say that as if I am a vile woman Shinji-kun. Do you hate me so much as to wish never see me again?" Anthy's sense of humor had taken great leaps since her time with Akio, her brother. "I am hurt greatly by this."

"I didn't…no no Anthy-nee-san you aren't…" Shinji stammered until he saw the playful glint in her eyes. "You tricked me!" Shinji pouted and drank his water to hid his embarrassment.

Wrapping that protective arm around the boy as she wished she could always do, Utena hugged him. "Oh you know you love Anthy and when she plays with your head like that so don't deny it." Though if Shinji did win a duel and married Anthy it would solve a large number of problems. Japan still hadn't gotten with the times and allowed gay marriage. If her two favorite people were wed, a formality, Utena could be in a holy union with her life partner and keep her eyes on Shinji forever. _Win win situation in my eyes. _

As Utena put the finishing bite of her medium rare stake into her mouth, a new contestant made herself known. "I don't think two judges should be allowed to fraternize with the same contestant." Urd had been watching the trio since they left the security room. She watched as Utena and Anthy stealthily kept the boy in the dark about all the other women with wonton gazes. _It's a shame the first day is contestants and photographers only, Skuld needs to make some points with him!_ But Urd wasn't so sure she wanted to give the boy to her youngest sister now. "Why don't I take that little one with me for a while and let you two continue to _fraternize_ in your room together?" Urd was the goddess of love so she could smell Utena and Anthy's relationship miles away.

Dropping her knife and fork to the ground, Utena patted her stomach. "No, go away you're spoiling the atmosphere." Getting only limited time with Shinji wasn't doing Utena any good, and now having to defend him against harlots like this platinum haired bimbo wasn't something she wanted. Making shooing motions Utena added, "Why are you still here? I said go away you're not sinking your claws into him."

Taking her napkin and dabbing her lips with it, Anthy added her own two cents. "I don't believe I like the way you say that word. Fraternize. When Utena-chan and myself are together it is more than that. But I guess you wouldn't know would you?" Anybody that wanted to steal her brother for a secret tryst just to win a contest couldn't know true love at all.

"Urd-san I think you're misunderstanding things here," Shinji tried to stop the brewing discord in the air. The Goddess of the Past was something of a friend and he didn't want his extended family fighting with his friends. "Utena and Anthy are close friends of mine…she isn't trying to…win us over."

She heard it! The strain and stress in her brother's voice as he tried to make nice. This bitch was ruining their evening, "Look and see what you're doing. You're making Shin-chan upset you old hussy. Can't you just leave us alone in peace." Utena stood up and knocked her chair over. Not very good with handling private emotions, Utena was making things worse.

Crossing her arms and holding them to her waist, Urd's eyebrow arched. "I am simply trying to talk to a friend and you are the one that seems to be intent on making matters worse." The audacity of this floozy trying to keep Shinji to herself when she already had a lover. _I want one to damn it!...I mean Skuld yeah Skuld needs one too! _

Anthy looked at Shinji and the pair nodded, Utena was going over the deep end and they knew a fight was inevitable now. Shinji inched closer to Anthy while Utena continued to glare at the Norn who answered the stare with equal fire. "I'm going to tell you this one last time Miss Look at My Aging Cleavage, leave our table now," Utena grabbed her half drunk glass of water and flung it at Urd.

By now the cameras were all focused on the pair and rapidly stealing snapshots of the women's verbal spat. Her eyes closed from the water, Urd felt it dripping down her face ruining her makeup and doing interesting things to her dress. "I was just going to let your bitchy attitude slide if you let me have some time with my friend there, but this is war!" Urd grabbed a glass of water from the table next to her and gave Utena a nice shower.

Like throwing water on a grease fire, Utena's anger exploded once the liquid hit her. Throwing herself across the table, Utena grabbed a hold of the plentiful platinum hair and pulled it back sharply, "Just remember you started this!" Continuing to pull the woman backward until she was at an angle Utena could use to pick her up, the warrior woman held Urd high above her head. Stress lines and veins popped up on her forehead from the strain but it didn't matter. Eyeing a decent target, Utena flung her Goddess of Love torpedo.

Taken unprepared, Urd felt herself flying through the air and when she saw the end of her flight cursed. She'd been tossed into a dessert cart. Cakes, pies, and custards ran down her dress and coated her body. The photographers had a field day with the images. "I didn't start this war but I'll finish it!" Grabbing a dessert from the next cart, a chocolate cream pie, Urd let loose! Being a goddess meant she could have used her lighting bolts or any other number of potions she made on her foe, but that risked scaring the prize.

The delicious projectile hit the sword maiden in the face, held for a moment, then fell to the ground. Her face a dark brown mess, Utena's rage boiled over. Grabbing the plate of food from another contestant, Utena let fly. She missed and hit a different contestant. The new entry into the food fight tossed back at Utena but hit Anthy instead. In a chain effect that went on and on, the great Miss Tokyo-3 food fight had begun. Nobody was spared and in the end Shinji took many a food item to his body but never returned fire.

After security was called in and the debutants, covered in goopy foods that lead the men taking photos to have more than one indecent thought, Shinji found himself back in his room. Utena apologized for not thinking or letting Shinji confirm that he in fact knew Urd before. Accepting the apology Shinji shut the door and shed himself of the dirty mess of foodstuff.

Feeling tired, but not to tired, he walked to his bathroom for a much needed shower. The day's started off so easy but escalated into a full on war of food. Turning the water on, hot but not scalding, Shinji let it rain down on him before he was about to start cleaning himself. But a pair of hands had already started doing it for him. His blood ran cold as he felt she bath sponge run the full course of his back. Spinning so fast he almost fell, would have if the arms bathing him didn't catch him.

"Careful lover, I'm not done with you yet," Morrigan chirped as she pressed the sponge to his chest and ran it in a small circle. She was infatuated with this mortal, after his blood flowed through her and changed her. It was true that positive feelings were almost impossible to find in hell, but in his blood she had tasted it and it was madding and addictive. It made her want love, caring, and support and not just besting her rival Asuka.

No Shinji's blood had cleansed her of that by replacing it with the need to be with him and feel such sensations for real. Clad only in water, Morrigan caught the poor boy as he fainted into her arms. "To much to soon?" she asked his sleeping form before she finished bathing him and putting him into his pajamas and into bed. For a moment she considered sleeping there with him but decided not to. "Not until you invite me love," she kissed her fingers and touched them to his lips. "Sleep well."

And he did for that night. No nightmares crested his brow that night, no all was well.

X-X

Author Notes

Not much to say, hope you liked it. Trying to think of funny PR stunts for the next two days worth of 'non-pageant' days so if you think of any feel free to let me know.

Oh and I have a request! With all the lovely ladies in the pageants I'm a little lost on who to have win it! I'd like you input BUT I don't want it as a review this time. I don't want to flood the review bucket with 'I want X to win' My request is you email it to me. I know its asking a lot but…I'd be much appreciative if you did.

Zentrodie-at-secondimpact-dot-com

Ja MATA!


	28. Lots o nothing

Standard Disclaimer

Yeah its been one hell of a long time since the last update of this story hasn't it? I've taken to liking my more serious pieces as of late and working on the novel. But with the death of my desktop (only two damn years old!) I wanted something a little more comical to lighten my mood. Hope you enjoy it.

X-X

What We Make of It

Chapter - 28 Day Two

or –

Now that is a lot of skin

"So you're telling me nothing happened at all?" Kaji asked the young man as they took their seats in the judges booth. Word around the male populace was that the young Ikari had a morning visit from the front runner of the Miss Tokyo-3 pageant. "I mean we've got witnesses saying she went to your room, entered, and stayed until the role call for applicants came in."

Glaring angrily at her quasi-brother, Utena wasn't taking the news any better than most of Shinji's growing fanclub. "Yeah Shin-chan, what is the scoop with this Hild person anyway?" Had her bout of anger yesterday pushed her brother into acts of depravity in order to get some sort of revenge?

Adjusting his tie as Kozo tested the mic, Shinji nervously chuckled. "Mama-Hild just wanted me to get a good breakfast before the second day started." Having been run around the hotel constantly and having the one meal he ate end in the heavily publicized 'Great Food fight Orgy', he had been rather malnourished. "I didn't promise her anything, she'll have to participate like everybody else."

Now clad in a green kimono, her hair falling freely, yet the tiger pin still proudly on her chest, Hotaru balled her fist under her mouth. "So nothing happened right? She didn't do anything to you?" She wanted to trust Shinji, believe he hadn't been seduced, but even Hotaru thought Hild was one damn sexy woman. _The woman with the highest score from day one just walks into his room and he does nothing?_

Reveling in a private smile, the growing contentment with calling Hild 'mama', Shinji defended the woman. "Hild is a caring and compassionate woman. Nothing she did was ill intended, so you have nothing to worry about. Mama-Hild just was looking out for me." And that felt wondrous to the motherless boy.

"'Mama'? Did you call her mama, Shinji-kun?" Kaji asked running a comb through his hair. The swimsuit competition was about to begin and Kaji wanted to leave a lasting impression on all those scantly clad beauties. "I didn't think you had an Oedipus comple…" his dialogue cut short as his eyes rolled up into his head and he fell forward.

Mini-Hild was only 1/100000000 power of the main body, but since Kaji had a demonic contract that was all the power the tiny tyrant needed. "Nobody is going to abuse my boy and get away with it," she said to herself in a defiant tone. Having a child she could dote on and love openly was an idea growing very powerful in the CEO of hell. Winking at her unknowing would-be son, Chibi-Hild rejoined her main body.

Not caring that Kaji was now a drooling pile of man-flesh, Utena propped him into his chair. Tussling Shinji's hair, "Well if you say that's all it is, I'll believe you." His words held such conviction, and that peaceful look on his face told her enough. Having spent more time with Shinji than most, Utena knew of the dark spot the lack of a mother had on Shinji. Utena shared that feeling of lose, and it was part of how they initially got so well acquainted. "Well looks like Kozo's about to start us off, let's kick back and enjoy!"

Raising their hands in jubilation, Shinji and Hotaru echoed Utena's enthusiasm. "May the best woman win!" they chorused. As odd as the pageant was, the judges were enjoying their time away from the more serious matters in their lives.

The crowd was growing not only impatient but larger. With the initial offering of four hundred contestants in both pageants being drained down to one hundred each, six hundred depressed women joined into the crowd to watch those that beat them. Shion was among them, having never gotten the audience to accept grease and oil stains as turn ons, all but Usagi and Ami from the Sailor Senshi were in the crowd looking jealously at the stage and Hotaru. Minako was the most hurt by being rebuffed by the judges, but had to admit Usagi beat her hands down.

"Ladies and gentlemen can I have your attention please!" Kozo bellowed into his microphone. The audience hushed instantly at the orators well toned introduction. "Our lovely teenagers are about to take not only the stage but to the beaches around the world!" How some of them got to their destinations so quickly, Kozo didn't know but could care less. "As you know already our hopefuls have been reduced in number to one hundred and at days end only twenty will remain. I, and the rest of your judges, will pick out the best for your viewing enjoyment and with that…" Stepping to the side, a large puff of gray smoke went off complete with sparklers and fireworks, the curtain was pulled back and day two of the Miss Teen Tokyo-3 officially began.

X – Our man Kozo is in rare form – X

Sasami looked out at the stage and then back down at her feet. Ten girls had already gone out and her turn was coming up soon. While her figure was very appealing, Sasami had to admit to her bitter dismay that they other girls had a few legs up on her. Looking at her chest, "Why can't you be bigger like those girls?"

"Does talking to your breasts help?" Usagi asked. She had seen this Sasami girl around with the newest member of her study group, but didn't know her personally. "I heard that the only way to make them grow is to drink a lot of milk. Maybe you should try that." Finger to chin, Usagi tried thinking of other myths she heard that she could impart. Minako would have known more. Sadly though only Ami was left and the girl had gone to a beach rather than stay at the stadium.

Unsure if the odd girl meant what she said or if she was mocking her, Sasami laughed dryly. "I'm just nervous is all. I With all those people out there watching us…and with so little clothing on how can I not be?" Not to mention Shinji had never seen her with so little on, Sasami's nerves were all but frayed. "Aren't you nervous?"

Spinning around on her bare foot, Usagi beamed out a bright smile. "Why should I be nervous? It's all just a game isn't it?" Our lady Usagi wasn't one to let reality bother her mentality. Plus she had so much lunar energy coursing through her, all she had to do was let it shine and she'd be a winner. "Oh I can't wait to win this and claim that two week vacation with Shinji," Usagi said aloud already skipping the events required to win.

"WHAT!" Sasami screamed. Her voice hit such a high note that as Shampoo went to turn and wave to a certain ex-hostage the martial artist fell and popped out of her top resulting in immediate catcalls and expulsion form the contest. Back behind the stage, Sasami was seething. "What do you mean a two week vacation with Shinji?" Sasami hadn't been keeping up on the gossip, Tsunami needed much of Sasami's free time to prepare for her tour of duty on the catwalk.

Finger in ear to help with the ringing, Usagi simply nodded. "Didn't you hear? The word from the pageant board sent out an update this morning. The winner of each pageant gets an additional prize. They get to take a paid vacation anywhere they want with the judge of their choice for two weeks!" From what Rei, Ami, and Makoto said Shinji was something of a man and Usagi could use a real one after the Chiba fiasco. "So what's he like, you know him right?"

Circuits fried, brain death imminent Sasami just stared blankly at Usagi. The pigtailed girl could have turned into a giant grasshopper or lecherous tentacle beast and Sasami wouldn't have reacted. Sure she was an aristocrat, but this was all just too much. Her confidence in her feelings and Shinji's wasn't the issue, it was just she was too bashful for this. The odd thing in front of her, some form of sound producing corn, asked her again if she was ok. "Uh…yeah."

The doorwoman called to Sasami, it was her turn to go out and strut her stuff. Bouncing off the wall as she wobbled towards the stage, even Tsunami couldn't repair the damage by Usagi's good intentions. Sasami had withdrew into her happy place in her mind where pageants didn't exist and she had on so many layers of her Jurian royal garb that she couldn't fit through doors.

Walking right off the stage, Sasami didn't see Skuld or her 'Mr. Stripper' device. Revenge was a dish best served cold, and Sasami's two piece swimsuits sudden disappearance left her very cold indeed.

X – So far that's two counts of full frontal…Bet the crowd loves it – X

When the last of the onsite contestants finished their glorious partaking in selling themselves in as little covering as possible, several men were rushed to hospitals with severe blood loss, it was time to bring up the big screen. As many contestants were rich, powerful, or had access to extra dimensional teleportation they tried to hedge their chances with exotic locals.

Many girls chose expensive resort beaches and far away exotic lands to accent their physical features. Rei had chosen Jamaica as her choice of exploitation. Again going for the fanboy vote she dressed like a mermaid. Her top was comprised of large shell pieces, but sadly the full lower body fish tail didn't really go over well with judges and viewers alike.

Using her mother's money, Ami had taken the first flight out to Hawaii. In a modest one piece, pure white, Ami had taken more to swimming than just modeling her fashion choice. With beads of water streaming down her taught form, that swimsuit was very form fitting and earned the senshi a position in the final round.

After a rousing round of applause for the senshi of water, Kozo cleared his throat. "Ok everybody lets calm down, we have one last contestant in the teenage competition." Pulling out the card with the details on it, Fuyutski started to sweat slightly. "Coming to us life from…the sea of Gehenna is the current highest scoring contestant." Gesturing to the screen it flickered from the pageant logo to a scene almost incomprehensible to human minds.

Blood red liquid crashed against the gray sands of hells most relaxing vacation spot. Asuka strode out of the blood like fluid clad in a mockery of decency. And any piece of fabric been any smaller the V-cut black swimsuit would have warranted an expulsion. "Hello my loyal meat sacks," she kissed her fingers and waved at the camera. A halo of flame enveloped the young demoness as she posed for what she thought was the adoring public.

Lucky for the human populace, Asuka wasn't telepathic or she'd have killed them all. The scenes of debauchery and pain behind Asuka had captured their attention and not the ethereal beauty of the unholy demonic princess. Had they been able to look past the sinners being skinned alive across the sands, the hell beasts devouring helpless victims, not that they didn't deserve it, the viewers would have again been enchanted by Asuka's scheme.

With Kozo in a state of total shock, it was Shinji that saved the day by walking on stage and using the remote he took from Fuyutski's prone hand turned off the unspeakable horror. The cheers were mighty for Shinji's work saving not only the pageant but the minds of the viewers.

Asuka however was not going to the finals.

Once Kozo changed his pants, the urine stain didn't fit well for a master of ceremony's, the audience was almost sane again. "Well that does it for the teenage portion of today's festivities." A man who could recover quickly, Kozo knew how to win back those watching, "are you ready for the main course?"

A raucous cheer filled the stadium, "I can't hear you, were you ready to see how our lovely ladies look in those skimpy and oh so delicate swim wear choices?" The audience called out even louder how ready they were, complimentary packets of tissue were handed out to clean up any messes. "I don't' think you're ready for this, maybe we should just cancel…" the gun shot that hit just were Kozo had been standing previously was a good sign to stop prolonging the event. "Alright then let's get this party started!!!"

X – Never keep people waiting to long or you might not get out alive – X

"Will you stop pacing already? You're making ME nervous and not about Shinji-kun," Ritsuko told her friend. Choosing to replace her traditional blue one piece for a nice black and white striped bikini, Ritsuko was feeling ready to head out and show just how attractive smart women could be. "So he had breakfast with some woman who has enough sex appeal to make a convent of eunuchs kill themselves, and a succubus that tried to kill him before pledged herself to be his servant for all eternity, nothing to be nervous about."

Well underway in wearing a path into the floor, Misato wasn't wanting to hear Ritsuko's tripe. "Did you just listen to yourself! That woman who almost created a riot yesterday ate with MY Shinji and that bitch Morrigan is back for whatever nefarious reasons and you're telling me its not anything to worry about? How much pot have you been smoking!" So upset about seeing Hild leaving Shinji's room, Misato's choice in apparel wasn't much of a choice. She was still in shorts and a t-shirt and had no inclination of finding something more fitting for the beach.

Cutting in before Ritsuko could say anything, Hild butted into the conversation. Switching her binding charms for more decorative ones, Hild was literally covered in stars. Her suit was what looked like stings of dental floss with red stars covering the vital areas to avoid elimination, Hild was proving she had no tan lines. "So you're my darling Shinji's guardian. Well soon to be ex-guardian." Hild was pulling strings with a few lawyers to get legal custody. Using American lawyers was best since they all sold their souls long ago for money, Hild had only to sign her name.

Pointing at Hild's lack of modesty, "You're saying I should worry about what this whore did with my ward?" Verbal barb directed at Hild aside, Misato didn't even hear the claim on said ward. "I feel like I've lost my mind!"

"Shoo! Shoo!" Hild pushed Ritsuko away from Misato and furrowed her brow. Normally Misato would have been treated to a bevy of lovely mind scalding punishments for such a negative insinuation, but Hild knew her boy liked this woman. "Since I'm going to be looking after your ward soon I'll let your slip of the tongue slide." Licking her lips suggestively, Hild pressed Misato against the wall with barely a touch.

"Wha-What are you doing?" Misato was startled at how easily she was being herded by this unscrupulous woman. Misato wasn't weak in any respect and the chocolate brown woman wasn't applying enough pressure to break a toothpick but still Misato was unable to resist. "If you're upset just tell me what you want with my Shinji and I'll tell you no and we can be done with this."

Leaning in close to Misato's ear, "If I wanted him I could have had him, just like I can have you if I want." Hild bit Misato's ear playfully as a lovely blush spread across Misato's face. Other women started gathering around to watch the show, Ritsuko handed out some snacks. Nobody could hear the two talking, Hild liked privacy in her discussions, but the show was a nice one. "I'm telling you now that Ikari Shinji is now legally in the care of yours truly. The boy needs a mother and I want a child that…can love me openly."

Belldandy turned to Urd as the pair watched over the encounter. It wasn't hard to miss how Urd stiffened at the words, but nothing could be done about it. Holy law was unbreakable, and Urd had to choose her side. But Belldandy was seeing an opportunity growing here. "Urd we can talk about this later, but for now get ready for your turn, I'll insure my dear friend Misato is fine." Pushing her sister down towards the stage, Belldandy's mind was formulating a lovely plan to make all her cherished people happy.

Back with the predator and prey, the prey was having a hard time keeping her breath under control. _I should be able to resist this, but damn I want this woman! What is she doing to me damn it! _Raising her arms to try and push Hild away, Misato in the end wrapped her arms around the CEO's waist. "Hild-sama…"

"Now, now Katsuragi-chan, none of that," Hild clicked her tongue and gently freed herself from Misato's grasp. Lowering her control spell before Belldandy had to interfere, as Hild suspected the goddess would, she patted Misato on the shoulder. "Like I said, IF I wanted to I could have done anything to that child I wanted. He did me a great service that I am not at liberty to divulge right now. And when I went to repay him I found he needed something that I WANTED to give. Motherly love."

"But I…he's my…why can't I do that?" Misato tried to grasp what Hild was saying, but it was so damn hard. Wasn't the task of being Shinji's surrogate mother her task? As she tried to think of how to defend her right to be the one to give Shinji a much needed maternal relationship, Hild's eyes told her everything. _The feelings I have for him aren't maternal like hers are, they're romantic._

Smiling lovingly at the woman her son came to care for, Hild turned Misato around and guided her to a dressing room. "I see you understand." Opening the room that the contestants use to change into their selected beach battle gear, Hild had an impish idea. She'd get her chance to punish this woman after all, "Let's get you ready for this little contest."

Leaning against the door, Belldandy listened for any signs of malice on the side of the CEO of hell. Misato was one of Belldandy's friends, any friend of Keiichi held a place in Belldandy's heart, and she'd make sure Misato got away from Hild without incident. Though while she did hear the odd squeamish moan from inside the door, much like her own as of late, Bell's mind was elsewhere.

_If Hild-san does raise Ikari-kun, then Urd and Hild can use him as ways of expressing there care for each other! He could be considered Urd's brother and is human. Urd can express her family love to him and he in turn can give it to Hild! _It would be awkward at first, but if executed well the longing Urd and Hild suffered from due to their separation would be cured. Walking off as her name was called, Belldandy had a skip in her step and missed Hild's punishment.

When Misato went on stage three contestants later, wearing nothing but pinned together paper towels, she was quickly cast out of the running. Hild had to insure her boy didn't see anything though, a convenient bit of dust got into his eyes as Misato exposed herself.

X – A mothers work is never done – X

Kos-Mos couldn't relax, not with that harpy somewhere nearby watching. Oh and the whole need to show her bioware components for non-master rated humans. Now that was a real bitch, but if she wanted that prize she'd have to do it. For whatever reason, Shion had installed a swimsuit application for her modular armor, it wasn't a real swimsuit but it would appear as one, problem was Kos-Mos never used it before. "How does one put on a swimsuit?"

Watching the failure that was Washu's attempt at seducing the audience with her modified nurse's outfit turned swimsuit, Attim shrugged. "I don't really know myself, never went swimming before." Hell she wouldn't have known she needed a special suit for the task of getting wet recreationally. Ritsuko had picked out her apparel under threat of exposing yet more of the mad scientists experiments. "And this red piece of fabric the good doctor said was 'just perfect' for me feels to reveling."

Attim's selection was far more conservative than Hild's and Asuka's choices but on normal human standards it was more like covering oneself with red colored duck tape. "Honestly I don't know why I'm doing this," pulling back the curtain to view the stage where the defense squad was fighting back throngs of salivating males, and a few women, trying to get to the laughing Hild. "Those pigs…seeing me like…this this! It's not right." It felt like she was nude, even with the suit on she felt so vulnerable and weak.

"I do not like it either, but I will not risk my master being taken by somebody that would do him harm," Kos-Mos's sensors never switched away from Shinji. A bevy of scanners were hunting for demonic signatures, she was jacked into all security feeds, and her internal systems were piped into every radio transmission. Kos-Mos was a walking security system with death as her last resort which was her only resort. "Are you not here for the same?"

After the initial fear on the first day, Attim accepted the truth of her actions. She wasn't fully in the pageant to protect Shinji, no she wanted to win so she could confess the truth. If the whole world saw her as externally beautiful, she'd consider herself worthy of trying. Should Shinji rebuff her for another, Attim would accept it as fate and love him from afar as his protector, but at least she would have tried. But this machine didn't need to know, "I'm not letting Morrigan take him again that's for damn sure." Giving Kos-Mos a good look over, "Going out like that? You're next are you?"

Her right hand went to the panel on the back of her neck, "I'll remedy that shortly. And I would appreciate if you'd watch over master while I'm on stage. My attention will be split and I too would sooner destroy that thing than let her touch him again." Pushing the button to trigger Shion's swimsuit attachment, the last two official women of the second day were given quite the show. The white paneled body armor appeared to shrink and change to a light orange color. From her neck to just below her bust the orange fabric stretched and opened in the center to give the impression of a healthy supply of cleavage. The bottom to the apparent bikini was a mix of orange and white and the ensemble was completed with two upper arm bracelets. The cloth had an odd metallic quality to it. Once the transformation was complete, Kos-Mos looked at herself in the provided mirror, "Is…this acceptable? My appearance module doesn't appear to be working."

Her jaw slack, Attim's eyes went wide taking in the remarkable change. "I don't know fashion at all but…that is one fine looking get up you have." Feeling only slightly inferior to the android, Attim checked herself again in the mirror. Finding herself paling in comparison to the machine, she just accepted it. Fate was a funny thing and she wasn't going to throw in the towel just yet. "Good luck out there, if either of us win we won't have a security issue."

It wasn't until Kos-Mos walked out into the stage that she noticed the little side effect of Shion's program. All her internal sensors and spy algorithms were offline, to much power was needed to keep the illusion up. Walking out blind, Kos-Mos just hoped that Attim was paying attention.

"And here we have the lovely Kos-Mos of Nerv's security and information protection division!" Fuyutski announced the arrival of the nervous semi-human. "The maker of her suit is listed as…Shion Uzuki. Shion you'll remember was a contestant as well but was eliminated in the first round." It pained Kozo to kick the tomboyish Shion off but the fact she let an oil trail hadn't gone over to well.

"Wow Shinji, I didn't know Kos-Mos could do…that!" Hotaru gasped at the stunning change in the android. "I mean yesterday she was all covered with bits and pieces of computers and this…this is something totally different." Hotaru was already writing high marks on Kos-Mos's score card, not even noticing how Shinji was enthralled by the change in his near constant companion.

She could feel his eyes on her, and focusing on him and that fact get Kos-Mos through the event. The camera flashes didn't bother her, nor did the cat calls and innuendo tossed at her. No, only her master mattered, the rest didn't exist. Spinning around on her bear feet, the fiber optic cables that made up her hair flailed about shimmering white and blue. If she had the capability to breath she wouldn't have been able to, to worked up and lost in the moment.

When she bowed and the metallic pieces of her top quivered lightly, the men exploded in applause. Not the most attractive woman to hit the stage, but she was defiantly something special.

Gesturing to the exit, Kozo dodged more bottles tossed at him. The audience wasn't ready for the stunning revelation in Shion's lusty designs to leave. "If you'd be so kind Kos-Mos, we have one last contestant. The ever lovely _Attim M-Zak_ would like to take her turn." Fuyutski hoped mentioning the second highest scoring woman would appease the angered populace. He was right.

Once Kos-Mos gave one last pirouette, Kozo turned back to the crowd. "As we started the Miss Tokyo-3 swimsuit competition with the video footage, I would like to present our final contestant. Attim if you would please?" Kozo's hand gestured wildly to the entry door.

Striding out with confidence and pose, Attim wasn't going to let the confidence boost she'd gained from the first day go to waste. She didn't get a fourth of the way down the runway before the applause was thunderous…and Utena rushed the stage.

Something about this woman just begged Utena to rush her, she had to hold that woman in her arms at least once. Having spoken to Anthy about the little fantasy she had, Utena was given the go ahead for a little contact, only a little though, and Utena couldn't wait. "I love you baby!" she called before diving on the shocked Miss M-Zak. With her exuberant dive, Utena propelled Attim off the runway and into the throng of men wanting the best look and photo. Unfortunately for the pair, they both had hard heads and when the collided the 'thonk' was so loud Shinji could hear it from his seat.

It took the full detachment of security forces to get the unconscious pair away from the lusting band of men. Quick to divert attention away from the ensuing mob in the pit by the stage, Fuyutski ran to center stage. "Well that's for day two everybody. The results will be posted tomorrow and to those of you that happen to be in our lovely Tokyo-3 tomorrow will be a day not to miss when our remaining contestants, along with your judges, well have a lot for you to see." The crowd let out a sigh of depression, wasn't that woman that scored third going to show up again?

Not to disappoint her fans, Morrigan had to wait for the perfect time to make her entry. Just as the audience was making to move, security forces guarding the exits, and her would be assassins diverted by the throng of movement she struck. Just as before her arrival was herald in a huge green fireball. "You can't end the day before you…see…me" Walking down the runway as if she owned her, her green hair swayed in a non-existent breeze, her head wings flapped playfully.

Everything stopped as she walked, posing in such ways that appeared impossible for human bodies to do, but oh so painfully alluring. Her one piece suit was black as pitch and riddled with holes allowing her porcelain skin to show through in such contrast to the suit it appeared to glow. "To all you prize seekers, I hate to be the bearer of bad news but you're not going to have an easy time." Her body pulsated the nearer she got to him, she could feel him as he could her.

Shinji's eyes locked on to Morrigan and wouldn't move. When she had drained him of his life's blood it wasn't just Morrigan that changed, no he and she were linked. He was in her, his blood and mingled with the succubus's and now she was almost an extension of him. "You…" he mouthed silently. The night before he remembered seeing her and feinting only to wake in his bed. Had it been a dream or did it really happen. Her eyes met his and in that moment Shinji felt it, he felt not malice or hate like before but unadulterated love.

Not like some of the girls that had feelings for Shinji, no Morrigan's were actually purer. Like Attim and Kos-Mos, Morrigan didn't need Shinji's full attention, he could be with and do whatever he wanted, just as long as he was happy was enough for them. Once at his side again, Hotaru held in place against the wall with a supply of air pressure, her glaive fallen to her side, could only watch as Shinji climbed up and onto the stage.

"What I did to you was wrong, and I apologize to you," Morrigan said with a tiny glistening of moisture in her eyes. Kneeling before the one she wronged, the one she had given herself to, she could only look at the ground and his feet. "If you do not forgive me I understand and accept that." But she would protect him regardless, she would love him regardless, and it wouldn't matter if he never said a word to her again.

Taking the hand she had pressed to the ground, Shinji raised Morrigan to her feet. Something inside her called to him, the mixture of his blood and her demonic energy created a beacon. "I forgive you," he admitted truthfully. Her arms flew around him and held him lightly.

It wasn't time yet, and the emotions he had were running high and off adrenaline. Morrigan wasn't going to let him make a mistake for her benefit. Plus the demonic surges behind her telling her time was almost up. Hild and Asuka were charging towards her and they didn't have her best wishes in mind. "One day we'll get to talk, Shinji. And on that day I'll ask you again if you truly forgive me for what I've done." Breaking the hug, Morrigan vanished in a ball of mist just as Asuka charged and collided with her vassal.

Two more unconscious people were rushed to the health station for monitoring. Hild's body trembled with rage at the audacity of one of her subjects. It was time to go on the hunt and the little succubus was in for one long excruciatingly painful lesson.

Nobody messes with Hild or her family.

X-X

Author notes

I keep forgetting how much fun writing this drivel of a story can be. With the novel and Orders I have to be so careful about progressing and characterization. But this is just pure and simple writing for pleasure. No worries, no regrets, and just funny stuff. Like always I value your opinion and hope you're enjoying this oddity as much as I enjoy writing it.

Suggestions, ideas, comments are welcome

Oh and hopefully my laptop won't die to soon and really prevent me from writing. Depression sucks, doesn't it?

Ja Mata

Zentrodie (Zentrodie-dot-geo-at-yahoo-dot-com)


	29. Its all in the handling

Standard Disclaimer

Standard Disclaimer

Rising from the grave to haunt the living and feast upon their everliving souls is…THIS STORY!! Yes its been a long time since I updated it, guess you can say I've taken the novel and Mercaba's work very seriously and let this thing dwindle a bit. Oh well its exploded to the point where its hard to keep track anyway.

As some of you might know…I LOVE HALLOWEEN…but this isn't a Halloween chapter (did that already) just wanted to wish all of you a fun/safe/enjoyable encounter with the souls of the dead.

X- LET IT BEGIN! –X

What We Make of It

Chapter 29 – Fight of Fools

Or

GET DOWN!...GET DOWN AGAIN!

Standing in the commandeered Tokyo-3 theater, Shinji pulled at his collar nervously. "I don't know Utena, I don't really think I can do this." The crowd was starting to form, all of them excited about Day-2's extra events. While Day 1 had been participant only, the second day was open to all who could get in. Prices were high and scalpers were making a fortune. One unfortunate scalper ran into Belldandy, his con fell hard against the unparalleled ease and joy and he gave her all his tickets. With which Bell provided for her friends to enter.

Ruffling her brother-in-heart's hair, Utena let out a full body chuckle. "It's just a few games Shinji. Nothing to be afraid of. At most you'll have to play ten times." Disengaging from the nervous boy, Utena readied her saber. The blade had been dulled to avoid inflicting injury on her opponents for the day, but one person might not be so lucky. Utena was going to have a word with this Hild woman, and if said bitch-until-proven-innocent was just using Shinji then things would get ugly. "And you have it easy, you have a potluck game with your contestants, I'm part of the combat brigade."

Coming up behind the talking mock-siblings, Hotaru carefully held her glaive at her side. "Yes Shinji-sama, of all of us judges you have the least combat experience." Clad in a traditional Gi, Hotaru's tiger cub pin was still boldly proclaiming her affections. Swinging her blade that could destroy the universe gingerly, Hotaru smiled, "But I hope you get a chance to watch me…us perform as well."

Catching the slip while Shinji blissfully ignored it, Utena gave the petit mousy girl a quick once over. "Yes, it would be a shame if he couldn't watch all those women try and beat us senseless all for the prize of going last in tomorrow's finale." Seeing Hotaru wilt made Utena a little more cheerful. Her brother needed a strong woman, not somebody who was sneaking around. Honesty was best.

Peaking at the crowd from the side of the curtain, Shinji's nerves didn't settle. "I just hope nobody gets hurt." His main fear was for Morrigan, after her second arrival on stage everybody was looking for her. He couldn't explain it in words, they wouldn't do it justice, but Shinji had a connection with his long ago kidnapper. "Anyway are we ready to get started?"

Sliding her blade into its sheath, Utena straightened the collar of her school uniform. "Once Kozo gets here and informs the mob out there, yeah." Who would she have to face, would she win, and more importantly if she could beat Hild into a bloody smear if it came to it were weighing heavily on her mind. Pointing across the backstage to Kaji, "Our gunman is currently napping, but shouldn't be too hard to wake him."

Sneaking closer to her one time pet, Hotaru whispered into Shinji's ear, her face burning as she sniffed in his aroma. "I think Utena-san is more nervous than she lets on." Was it true or just a jab to knock the pink haired she-warrior down a peg, only Hotaru knew. "Anyway, good luck Shinji-sama." Being the Senshi of rebirth, Hotaru was a shoe in to win…right?

Feeling a smidgen bashful at the timid yet lovely girl he bathed with and befriended while a feline, Shinji tried his best to forget such elicit memories. "I'll do my best," he said to her then nodded towards the stage, "Fuyutsuki is heading to the mic." The crowds cheers were enormous as the aged showman took center stage, Shinji was jealous of the man's courage.

"Ladies and Gentlemen!" Kozo's arms shot out dramatically, "Welcome to the Tokyo-3 amphitheater for the second day of fun and frivolity!" His hands beckoned to the crowd which ate up the man's actions as if they were rich cream. "Today we have games for you! Your judges will compete against the lovely ladies in what they excel at best!" The crowd went silent as Kozo's words sank in. "For some it is dueling the ever lovely Utena Tenjou, a traditional Japanese spar with Hotaru Tomoe, match gunfire with Ryouji Kaji, a knife fight with yours truly, or for those of our contestants that lack such skills a duel of there choice with Shinji Ikari!"

The crowd exploded with cheers. Not only would they get to see all those lovely ladies, moving and jumping…certain parts moving in ways that reminded them of rubber…several of the less restrained men fainted from acute blood loss. Women however, were LIVID! So many of the previous contestants wanted revenge for being cheated out of the contest…and the chance to play twister with Shinji (clothing optional of course).

To Kozo though, all the sounds were great, the crowd was at his mercy. "And with that, let the days activities begin!"

X- Surely all the contestants have noble intentions –X

From her place in the crowd, mob more like it, Misato grumbled as Skuld and Keiichi cheered on. "Why did I have to get eliminated for such a stupid reason," she bemoaned. All she did was walk on stage in tissue paper that fell off due to the extreme heat of the lights. It wasn't as if she 'tried' to usher in the passage into manhood for untold scores of teenage boys, she was just gifted.

Not taking his eyes off the stage, Keiichi knew if he missed his wife's performance he'd never live to regret it, "You just had a run of bad luck is all." Knowing Hild personally, had Keiichi known of what Misato had done, he'd have said his friend got off easy. "Anyway would you really want to do that?" he pointed to the stage.

With each judge, save Shinji, having a very skilled profession, each was to go one after another. Four contestants each, then switch the stage for the next judge, the teenagers first followed again by the adults. Judges need to rest too damn it! The winners of each set would then compete against the others in…as voted for in an online poll…a pillow fight. Winner then chose a judge and contest, if they won they went last in there respected pageant for the talent show. Currently Kaji was running through an obstacle course laden with targets, against Tessa Testarossa, winner was whoever got the most targets.

Bored with the non-Belldandy and non-Shinji elements, Skuld ate her ice cream and with a languished sigh, "This is boring." She didn't care about fashion, or prestige, why would the goddess of the future care about such human concepts. No Skuld just wanted to see who won, and beg her father to make the prize not be a certain pilot. "Can I have some more money for ice cream?"

"You've eaten three already and you still have one! This is only the first judge Skuld and his second match!" Keiichi didn't mind Skuld's borderline obsession with the creamy confection but food at events like this were horridly expensive. "Why don't you go talk to your school friends if you're that bored? Look I see that Sasami girl over there."

Jumping out of her chair, Misato screamed, "Two to your left! LEFT!" Hating Kaji with a passion of a thousand desert suns, Misato was hoping to get this Tessa girl to win. Unfortunately while Tessa was a crack shot, the long platinum haired teenage captain, wasn't the most coordinated. Spinning left…then left again…Tessa slipped on her own feet and fell sending her weapon out into the crowd. Taking Misato's advice, Kaji found said targets fired, and earned a life long enemy in the form of one Sagara Sousuke.

"And this round goes to Kaji!" Fuyutsuki announced over the PA system. Some of the lesser informed girls called out for the spy in admiration. A grizzled teenager made his way to the stage, scoped up his commanding officer and girlfriend, gave the spy a look that froze over the soulless man, and walked off with the sniffling super genius. "And for our next contestant would Ami Muzino come to the stage please!"

Fearfully turning from the stage to where her victim and victimizer was, Skuld wasn't sure if she wanted to tell Keiichi about why she would rather ram nails into her foot rather than talk to Sasami. Sure she was a princess, sure she was the melding form of a higher form of goddess than she was, but what really urked Skuld was how Sasami oh so casually dropped the fiancé bomb. "Think I'll stay…"

"SHOT HIM IN THE CROCTH! It's a SMALL TARGET! But if you hit it HE'LL CRY FOR HOURS!" Misato screamed at the stage. Oblivious to the looks from the women captivated by Kaji's roguish good looks and charm, Misato shouted obscenity after obscenity at her ex. "BLUE! IT HANGS SLIGHTLY TO THE RIGHT! FIRE!"

"With my friends," Skuld corrected herself as Misato continued her tirade. Leaving her brother-in-law and his very strange friend to themselves, she rather have the company of wolves over more perverse shouting. Freeing herself from her aisle, the young Norn wandered into the pit of non-contestants. It was a dark place, full of hatred, regret, plush toys, scented candles, and cut throat competition. Skuld felt much more at home here than by Misato.

X- So she's not taking losing easy, Misato should be forgiven – X

It was his turn now, the winners of the previous four rounds were already gathering pillows. Most filled them with a few rocks to give themselves that extra edge, while others swore they slept with bricks as pillows. Shinji watched as Ami (victory over Kaji), Washu (victory of Fuyutsuki), Anthy (a contested victory over Utena), and Usagi (Hotaru couldn't attack Usagi even if she wanted to) walked to the preparation wing. All that was left was for him to face four fellow teenagers in whatever game they wished. "Why do I feel so nervous?"

Wiping the sweat off her brow, Utena shrugged, "Stage fright maybe?" Wrapping her supportive arm around her quasi-brother, she hugged him reassuringly. "Don't fret so much about it? What is the worst that could happen? You're playing games with kids your own age, not fighting demons!" Or rampant fans (female and male alike) who want your picture or to duel you for your bride, stupid Ohtori academy. Shinji eased a little in her grip making her too ease a trifle. "Now go out there and win!" she shoved him out onto the stage to the furious catcalls of all the women.

Standing in the center of the stage, Shinji resigned himself to fate, that of interacting with very beautiful women…a tragic fate. Kozo's voice filled the stadium, the wounds he sustained from Washu had him recovering in the medical ward. "For our final round of the teenage portion, we have Shinji Ikari as the judge to beat. Would our first challenger Shinobu Meahara come to the stage. Her choice in combat is…cooking!"

A very Iron Chef stage was revealed as a young petit dark blue haired girl walked up the stage. She had seen Shinji once when she first came to school and then…vanished. But something about him was just familiar. Kozo's voice continued as both challenger and Iron Ch…judge bowed to each other. "The special ingredient is… Yebisu! Let the battle begin!"

Having cooked with Misato's beer of choice many times before, Shinji annihilated the poor girl. Had it been any other event he would have felt the same pangs of familiarity that Shinobu had, but unfortunately there was no disaster to come out of…Bowing after the other judges ate the food and announced Shinji victorious. "I'm sorry Shinobu-san, better luck in the pageant." And she walked past him and out of the his life again.

"Next up is Shampoo, odd no last name given, and the contest is," Kozo coughed lightly and adjusted his tie. He re-read the card and called Kaji over, "Read this and tell me what you think it means?" The spy did and then fainted, "I thought so." Tearing up the card and throwing it out of memory, Kozo wasn't going to have full contact nude pudding wrestling as a contest. Sure it would bring the boy into adulthood instantly, but in front of a crowd wasn't the best place. "Dance Dance Revolution!"

"Why no say Shampoo's challenge for fiancé! Is good to know skill in pudding!" Shampoo shouted as she ascended the stage. Clad in a traditional Japanese kimono, with nothing on underneath, the skilled fighter wasn't dressed for the new challenge. "Fiancé you tell man to change back!"

Tying his shoes better, Shinji took his position on the right pad, "Sorry Shampoo-san, but I can't do anything about the challenges I'm involved in." Shinji's apologetic smile said that yes he had already forgiven yet another kidnapper. "Lets just make the best of it?" Catching the Amazon who stumbled in her cloth prison, Shinji did his best not to notice that while Shampoo was freakishly strong she was also soft and warm.

Noticing the boos and hisses from the crowd, Shampoo turned to them, stuck her tongue out and while still in Shinji's arms planted the 'kiss of marriage on him.' "You all fail, he mine!" she cheered as the hatred for said Amazon intensified.

Breaking up the agitation before it became a full fledged riot, Kozo chose the first song and started the pair off. Shinji, in post 'I just got kissed for no reason' shock failed instantly, and Shampoo just barely finished. A call from Misato to 'douse the cat with water' went unfulfilled. But after recovering, Shinji blasted past the stiff and ridged Amazon in the second song.

"May the best player win," he held his hand out to shake Shampoo's. When she took it, again the sense of strength and vulnerability shattered the lad's comprehension meter. Standing next to her as the song began, he willed himself to not be aware of her, shut her out of his mind, be one with the song and the pad. He WAS DDR, and thankfully missed when Shampoo over stretched a step, tore out of her kimono and ran off the stage stark raving nude. When the song completed he turned to wish her luck and all he got out was, "Where did Shampoo go?"

The drooling crowd offered no answer.

Flexing his repaired left arm, Kozo turned on the PA again, "Up next we have…Kos-Mos?" Confused, Kozo turned to the other judges who just shrugged. "Oh well whatever, switching places with one of the teenagers, we have Kos-Mos!" It wasn't a legal matter that got Kos-Mos into the teen pageant, it was her R-Scythe and the threat of great pain if they didn't acknowledge her as a teenager. Technically she wasn't even a teen yet having only been activated in the past year. "And our lovely lady of defense chose an appropriate game. Chess!"

It was a total wipeout, not even the women and children (aka pawns) were spared. "I am sorry Master, but I cannot allow myself to lose," Kos-Mos regrettably told her cherished owner. "Forgive me?"

Stunned at the utter failure he had shown in a game he wasn't half bad in, Shinji just nodded. "You had to have your reasons…but wow you're good." He hadn't taken a single piece and Kos-Mos took him down in a matter of moves. "Good luck in the pageant," he smiled at her as Kozo gestured for her to leave the stage.

"For the last of Shinji's teenage competitors is a Haruhi Suzumiya," he gestured to a bored looking brunette who jumped up on the stage guitar in hand. "And she is challenging in the art form of…"

"MUSIC! It's the music battle and I will not go easy on you!" Haruhi challenged as she shouldered her electric guitar and faced the stage. On a bored whim the leader of the SOS brigade wanted to know what being in a beauty pageant was like, and of course she got in.

What followed was a mockery of auditory senses. Playing notes she liked but didn't meld together, the semi-god created temporal rifts that only Shinji's soothing cello closed. In the audience Kyon and Asahina thanked creation that the boy challenging there leader stopped her insane plans.

"Well that does it for the teenage portion with Kos-Mos being the last of the four, the pillow fight will occur along side the adult version so nobody fells left out," Kozo's smile was press on. Real reason was they didn't want grown mean salivating over teenagers, so they'd give them an option and if they didn't take it Attim was going to sink a tiny dart in there neck and let them sleep it off.

X – And His chastity wasn't publicly lost…yet – X

"I still don't know what I did wrong," Asuka wailed as the pageant crew set up the next set of contests. Kozo and Kaji finished already with Attim showing Kaji exactly what a gun is capable of and Ritsuko demonstrating just how a knife can be used to remove bothersome male appendages. "I mean all I did was show the meat sacks hell's most popular resort!"

Sipping on her tea, Sasami rolled her eyes, "Maybe that was the reason? Normal sane creatures don't necessarily like the aspect of hell!" Suppressing a shudder, Sasami remembered all to well what she had seen. Nobody who saw the event either live or on television would forget. "You need to think about your audience before you do something like that."

Hurling a fireball at a group of fans, Asuka hissed out smoke, "I'll try to remember that next time. And I'll ask you about how to strip in front of a few million people too." Clad in her school uniform, Asuka wasn't happy to have the snobbish princess reading her the riot act. "What about you halfy? What you screw up with?"

On a Nadesico trip, Rei tilted her head and smirked, "I thought they weren't idiots for a second. They reminded me how foolish men can be." Hating being called halfy and being friends with Sasami, Rei had all the motivation to increase Asuka's agitation. "Did you hear Ikari-kun is being hailed as a saint for saving the planet from your little show?"

Catching on to Rei's attack, Sasami added to it, "Something about making him officially an ordained saint in the eyes of the world churches. Guess he'll have a higher rating in the heavens now thanks to you. Demonic power will be at an all time low because of it." Not to mention legions of females now had a prince to thank for saving their minds from unparallel horror, Sasami didn't like that aspect of things so kept silent.

"If you aim is to piss me off to the point of burning everything you love to the ground you're a nanometer away," Asuka informed as she crossed her legs. Her left on top was twitching and jumping as her nervous got higher and higher. "So what if I made daddy angry and my mom is thinking of visiting to make sure 'my temper is in check' it's not like it was REALLY my fault!" The idea of Naga showing up made Asuka's black blood boil. Her mother had stressed an unholy attention to Shinji and Asuka had no intentions of letting the White Serpent get her hands on the goods.

Plopping down next to Asuka, cautious of making eye contact with Sasami, Skuld sulked. "What did I miss?" she had her seventh ice cream bar in hand. Checking back in with Keiichi and Misato warranted another bout of obscenities and a tired haggard smile from Keiichi. _Ever since the wedding Keiichi looks so tired, what is sis doing to him? _The answer was still metric tons of love making, Bell couldn't get enough and Keiichi was thinking of asking Ritsuko to perform an 'accident' on him so he could get some sleep.

"So if the stripper makes her way back with more of that slop dribbling down her chin," Sasami baited. While it was very unprincesslike and Shinji would have been appalled by her lack of decorum, Sasami couldn't forgive the damn tech freak from what she did. _Sure I did the same thing, but when I did it, it was an accident. _But why think of truths when hard laid animosity felt so much better.

In between licks, "Stow it your royal pain in the ass. If you and that freak pet of yours hadn't made me fall I'd still be up there." What bothered Skuld the most was how she couldn't replicate Ryo-oki's construction. Hell she didn't even know where to begin! "So unless the next words out of your oh so refined lips are 'I'm sorry' I don't want to hear it!"

"I'm sorry," Rei cut in before Sasami could fire off yet another dignified and royal retort. As eyes fell on her, Rei's calculating mind was already waving them all together against one another, "I'm sorry, but are you inferring that you'd have beaten everybody here to be up on stage?" Like the next girl, Rei was heavily downtrodden about losing the two week vacation with Shinji, but it wasn't because she doubted her looks. _Stupid people don't appreciate the fish tail._

Instantly every girl around them wanted in on the great 'Skuld is better than all of you puny normies' debate. Sure more than one of the participants wasn't a normie (normal person) but that didn't matter. They all were better than Skuld, better than everybody else, and had they not made a fatal flaw they'd be up there…Security had to be called in to break up the fight and pull the fighters away to the in theatre detention cells.

Back in her seat, Rei kicked her feat up on the front of the chair in front of her, stretched her arms out, and relaxed. "Popcorn would be nice," she mused but no matter, the next bout was going to start.

X – Rei is evil we all know that right? Pure un-adulated evil – X

Things couldn't have worked out better, Utena thought. Gazing across the stage at her opponent, she had hoped for this opportunity. To finally get the answers from this woman that had the audacity to brush up against her little bro. If the craven image had plans for a quick victory and a broken hearted boy, Utena wouldn't stay her hand from a little disfiguring accident. "So you're 'mama-Hild'?"

Circling around her opponent, Hild had lived far to long to be easily bated into an attack. Her rapier firmly in her left hand, the blade pointed at Utena's neck, she didn't appear to be taking things seriously. Such was the difference in skill from Hild and most attempted players of the blade. "Shinji calls me that yes. Such a nice boy, I'm going to enjoy having him as my son." A quick lunge in caught Utena off guard, but was deflected, Hild returned to the guarded position.

Startled at the drastic change in skill, Utena altered her tactics. A jab followed by two long horizontal swipes, all skidded against Hild's blade. "What are you playing at? I don't trust this whole thing." Spinning in a wide circle, Utena gabbed out catching the slightest tip of Hild's blade, almost a point. "You come in out of nowhere and suddenly you want to be his mother. Do you know what he's been through?"

Not one to stay on the defensive long, Hild deflected Utena's next vertical slice and kicked the Duelist of the Roses in the stomach sending her flying back. "I know a little of it yes," she had followed up on her boy's past the moment she knew she wanted to be his mother. A sad life, a painful one, and a pain she would remedy and a life she'd destroy. Gendo had no idea what was in store for him. "As for 'nowhere' that isn't actually the case."

Charging in, blade in line with her eye, Utena unleashed several powerful thrusts forcing Hild to draw back. "Oh really? As something of a sister to him, I'm not convinced you mean a damn thing you're saying." Blocking an overhead strike, Utena dropped to one knee due to the force. Swinging her leg around she struck Hild's thigh and the CEO of hell fell back. Jumping back to her feet, "You could just be using him as a way to win this contest, and I won't see him hurt because of it!"

It had been a long time since Hild had such a good fight, but being accused of deplorable family matters wasn't something she'd allow. "And what could you do against me little girl?" Swinging her rapier at Utena's chest, Hild shattered the training sword and Utena jumped back with a hilt and a mere foot of a blade. "That boy did something for me that was to never happen. A violation of holy law, but he did it for no gain of his own. I owed him, and I chose to give to him what he wanted and I found I did too. Now back down little girl or I'll have to apologize for breaking his sister."

In the stands the crowd was holding its breath. By far the greatest showing of skill they'd seen during the competition, and the last before Shinji again played hodgepodge. Back and forth the lead in the match swayed. Though with Utena at a disadvantage they all let out a content sigh. Hild was going to win, that was until Shinji walked on stage with one of the contestants with him.

"Himemiya!" the semi-unarmed duelist cried out and raced to the side of the stage. What followed, the crowd believed, was one of the coolest special affects they've ever seen. Utena removed the sword of Dios from the beauty's chest and spun around. "Let's end this!"

Both duelists knew it came down to this, one final move to this match. Blades held expertly by both, they charged. A gasp was released by every attendee and viewer at home. In a matter of moments, the pair passed each other and Hild's rapier fell from her hand. Lightning quick, Utena spun around and put the point of her blade to her opponents back. "Answer me this one thing, do you truly care for him?"

Hild couldn't take her eyes away from both her new son and the exotic beauty next to him. They both were so nervous and fearful of what was going on. _So she isn't like those other scared little girls afraid I'm going to take him away from her. Her love is that girl, as evident by her blades power. _Standing up and deftly swinging around Utena, arms wrapped playfully around the girl's neck, "I would give anything to be the mother that boy lost, I cannot replace her, but I can be there for him. As you two are."

"W-what are you?" Utena choked out. No human could move that fast, be so strong and soft at the same time, had this woman tried at all she'd have easily killed.

Letting Utena go, Hild walked off towards the unfortunate losers' aisle, but stopped to address the question poised to her. "I am going to be his mother. And while I know I cannot call you daughter, I know that when I am not there for him, you will be." With a bow, Hild left the stage to wild applause as Shinji and Anthy saw to the wounded duelist.

X – Don't mess with family if you enjoy living – X

Holding an icepack to Ritsuko's head, Misato did her best not to laugh. "How's the head feeling?" The large red lump wasn't necessarily painful, but Misato winced just looking at it.

"It feels like Attim shoved her pillow so hard into my skull she left feathers in my skull, Misato," Ritsuko's dry tone was the straw that broke Misato's back and the woman started laughing. "How do you find this funny? A group of grown women were having a pillow fight for the perverted masses of the world. I should feel ashamed of having participated."

Letting the bottle blond take over nursing her own wounds, Misato sat back in the chair provided for her. The medical wing at the theatre wasn't much, but it was enough. "To think how that all went down. I'm amazed they didn't kill you. Did you hear Kos-Mos almost knocked a girl out of the stadium?"

"Was this before or after the thirty mile away snipe against Kaji?" Ritsuko's ability to recall facts was impaired by the still spinning world. Pillows were soft relaxing things, so how the hell had Attim blast her so hard she bounced off a wall? "And was this the same Attim's full body twister match against Utena?"

Snorting as she laughed so hard, Misato covered her mouth. Once the wave of giggles left her, "My god you should have seen how red that teenager's face got. Miss Tenjou was about to pass out when Attim walked out in that leotard." But Attim wanted to win, and using Utena's fixation on her to her advantage made for an easy win.

Shinji's personal bodyguards weren't screwing around. Embittered by fact that Morrigan chose not to participate in the fun and games part of the competition, Kos-Mos took out her frustrations on one Ami Muzino and send the Senshi of water to the bed next to Ritsuko's.

"I thank god this whole mess ends tomorrow and we can get back to the serious matters," Ritsuko laid back in her bed and turned on her side. "This is a terrible waste of our time, and what are you looking all nervous about?" Ritsuko snapped at Misato as her friend continued to grind her hips together and fumble with her hands.

Scratching at the side of her cheek, Misato wasn't good about asking for personal favors, but she REALLY wanted the prize. "Um if you win…could you maybe…possibly…ask for Shinji to take you someplace I can afford and follow?"

"GET OUT!" Ritsuko hurled a pillow at Misato, striking her square in the forehead and toppling the chair over.

X-X

Author Notes

Yeah it's a little shorter than most chapters, but easing myself back into this story can be difficult if I have chapters like this. So many options can be a hindrance. How much is to much, when is one character getting to much attention. All the back story…sheesh. Well the next chapter and story arc are in mind already so it shouldn't be as hard.

Again have a happy Halloween and go out and have fun!!!!

Ja mata

Zentrodie (zentrodie-dot-geo-at-yahoo-dot-com)


	30. All good things come to an

Standard Disclaimer

It's a new year! It's a new day its…snowing…DAMNIT Anyway continuing the time honored tradition of oddities I present to you the concluding chapter of the 'Miss Tokyo-3' arc of What We

X-X

What We Make of It

Chapter 30 – To the Victor the Spoils

Or

Every woman for herself

X-X

"Now I know you want to sit with your…friends…but after the fight at the games yesterday, Rei, nobody trusts you," Misato reminded the girl that read far too much Excel Saga and was profusely bleeding from the nose. Having been remanded to the penalty booth as well for her near constant verbal abuse of Kaji, Misato wasn't exactly little Miss sunshine either. "Can we please get a little more ventilation in here!? I'm burning up!" As it was a formal affair, both Misato and Rei were in the finest…well cleanest attire. With Shinji sequestered for the week it left Misato's clothing options rather limited.

Garbed in a tight fitting shoulderless black evening gown, Rei blankly looked at the stage, "But why do they get to be out, they were the ones fighting not me?" While she wouldn't comment on the heat, the tiny bead of sweat gracefully sliding down her face was proof enough. "And why are you here?" hate laden Rei's tone.

"Shampoo get caught threatening girl to give place," the Amazon who had been eliminated in the first round only to threaten the timid Nodoka Miyazaki into giving up her position was found out. "Stupid man say Shampoo can't cheat back into games, no cheat if small girl give place!"

Reaching into her hand bag, Misato smiled thinly at the one time kidnapper, "Sure, what fun is it with only weak people right?" Was Misato one to forgive and forget? To let bygones be bygones and let Shampoo off with what punishment she had already received. "Oh what's that over there?" Misato pointed to the stage, and the moment Shampoo was looking away the captain of Nerv used a small tool stolen…borrowed from Ritsuko and shot a dart into the Amazon's neck.

"Would you two be quiet!? The show is about to start and I would like to see it AND hear it," Minako Aino wasn't taken her being sequester any better. So maybe she started screaming about the unfairness of the judgment she received in the first round, so maybe she tried to flirt with the cute judge to be let back in. Ami and Rei's stories about him working wonderful fantasies in her mind and it maybe made her go a little far. Was undressing the boy in a men's room stall while he was away worthy of her incarceration?

A legion of other men and women filling up the stadium's quasi-brig repeated Minako's statement. They didn't want to be locked away, but they wanted to watch the proceedings in relative peace. Rei and Misato did the only thing they could, the moved Shampoo to a less vulnerable position and kept there grips to themselves as Kozo tested the mic.

X- Its just the start – X

"Welcome lady's and gentlemen to the concluding night of the Miss Tokyo-3 and Miss Teen Tokyo-3 pageant! I again am your foreman for the evening's plethora of delights!" Kozo bowed politely as the cheers ramped up in the stadium. "As you likely remember today is the talent portion of the pageant. Your twenty contestants will demonstrate what they excel at most, and when they finish your judges will vote on the winner with the crowd favorite being counted as two votes itself!"

A hush fell over the crowd. The men and women looked at each other in shock for several moments. They had just expected to watch, they had no idea that they would have such a role to play as a judge themselves. That was exactly how the pageant organizers wanted it, to prevent the crowd from being filled with high priced fill ins. Sadly the organizers didn't realize that many of the contestants were extra-planier beings who were already working subtle manipulations through the crowd. Some men had such blood loss as the lesser noble women, or vassals there of, filled there head with lewd and telling imagery

Spotting the hungry glint in many eyes, Kozo continued unabated. "As you know the rules are still the same, no holds bar but nobody can bare it all on the stage." Again the boo's were almost deafening. The crowd wanted nudity! Why should those nubile beauties be confined to the cloth shells and the magnificence hidden? "The winners of each pageant will be announced together after the conclusion of the ceremonies. Each winner will then pick the judge of there choice for a full expense paid trip anywhere they want, and a contract with the Tendo-Talent agency."

Making small strides across the platform, Kozo was going to miss this power, this hold over the common man, but mostly he was going to miss skipping work. "With that in mind, let the SHOW BEGIN!" If his mini-vacation was to end today, then he was going to have as much fun as humanly possible in the process. Little did anybody know though, the Magi had detected a blue pattern and it was slowly making its spherical way towards the auditorium.

Fireworks exploded, lights flashed, and the curtain pulled back to let the twenty potential teenage winners be seen by the crowd. Each skilled beyond normal human understanding, a few coming from places other than Earth, and all had one thing on their mind, victory! With a low bow, more nosebleeds ensuing as the teenage boys got to see something they dreamed of, all but lovely Ami Muzino left the stage.

Scooting back as Kozo made his way past them in the judge's box, Utena nudged Shinji playfully. "That girl seems to have her eye fixed on you, Shinji." While Utena was haggard and sore from her fight with Hild, she felt elated. Her brother was going to be well cared for in her absence, here fears of Hild evaporated in that one casual embrace and short discourse. "Better not let her charm you into a vote or I'll have to call out foul on you."

Blushing more at the insinuation that the study buddy with an odd mother on stage had any idle thoughts of him, Shinji pulled at the collar of his tuxedo. "Utena, don't say things like that. Ami-san is just nervous and I'm the less threatening judge. If you don't remember all of you, yesterday were showing the world how deadly you can be." Seriously Shinji couldn't help but feel emasculated at how all the judges sans-him were skilled fighters.

Knowing full well that not only was Ami eye humping Shinji, but he was the only guy to EVER get such a vocal response from the timid senshi, Hotaru grumbled. "I think Shinji-sama is right, Ami-san isn't the type of girl to ever 'really' want a relationship with a boy." Lies were a prominent weapon of statecraft, and what better could define the art of dating that the joining of 'city states', as long as the joining was long, sweaty, and mind warpingly pleasurable.

"See Hotaru-chan agrees with me and she's better friends with Ami-san. I only studied with her," Shinji was quick to jump on his escape route. It was easier to believe nothing could exist between them as to accept the possibility would eventually end in heartbreak for him when the truth was made known. Or so the blissfully ignorant boy kept telling himself. "But where did she learn to…um…bend…like that?" Shinji asked as Ami continued her gymnastics display.

To say Ami was performing a tasteful dance would be the same as comparing a child's drawing to a Picasso. Ami Muzino had taken her mother's words to heart before the show, and those were 'use everything you have to win, if that means a little perverse actions by all means do it.' And while it was hard for her, Ami was very well performing what Vegas strippers do for big bucks, just with her close on.

The nasal hemorrhages were mighty and great, and when it was all said and done the other Sailor Senshi looked at Ami in a new light. The girl wasn't somebody to right off, she was a potent threat. The judges however weren't so easily swayed by sexuality, as two of the judges saw it as what it was, a ploy to gain entry/attention from Shinji, and the others weren't pedophiles. Ami's score wasn't good.

X- Ami doing a striptease…stranger things happen –X

Watching as the fourth girl, Kallen Stradtfeld, failed miserably to act out a scene from Macbeth, Sasami growled in discomfort. "How did any of us get beaten by that waste of space? I mean she can't act her way out of a paper bag!" Envy, jealousy, and plan spite was the growing sensation in the pit of rejects, also known as losers row. Sasami could see the red head on stage had a better body in some places then her, but the rest of the girl was just ungrateful. "What do you think?"

"I think I need to burn this place and everybody in it that's not a vassal," Asuka rolled her eyes and snorted twin plumes of fire from her nose. Thankfully the traitorous halfy was gone, locked in the penalty booth, with countless others, for her act of starting a riot. "I could do better than any one of those harpies and here I sit with you losers." Stupid human brain not comprehending the sheer majesty of hells grim design pissed the princess off. "I mean they have me sitting with a weak goddess and a prim and proper little elite princess, this is worse than being back home."

Giggling, Skuld pulled a fresh ice cream cone out of Mr-Freezer, and started eating. "You're just pissed that as a newly elected saint, Shinji-san is destined for heaven after he dies, which means he'll be with me." It was oceans of fun to knock the egotistic demon down. Foregoing setting with Keiichi, who was beside himself after the audience participation part was mentioned, Skuld was hoping to make amends with Sasami. "Going to be a long lonely eternity for you, want me to tell you what heaven is planning for its newest savior?"

Turning slowly, Asuka just smiled wrapped her arm around Skuld, Asuka chose to wear a dress her mother sent meaning it was mostly tiny stripes of red leather leaving most of her exposed. "I know what you're trying to do, it's the same trick angels always try to do. But remember, just because he's sanctified now doesn't mean he'll stay that way." Pulling Skuld in close, so close several men feinted as they thought the girls were making out, and whispered. "But by the time we're finished, he'll have become such a pillar of sin and debauchery that the heavens would burn if he stepped foot in them." To add insult to lesser insult, Asuka beamed an image of her vassal in a very compromising position with her.

On seeing what Shinji was doing to Asuka in the vision, Skuld's face burst into such a shade of red it matched Asuka's clothing. "You…you…he's…with you…but he's on top AND behind…and you're…how can it be that good!" Needless to say the inexperienced goddess of the future wasn't prepared for the type of thing demons like doing in there off happy fun time. _She looked like she was going to just die from it! _

While not really coming to Skuld's aid, aristocrats don't make friends they make tools, Sasami jumped in. "Remember that flame-breath her has about as much actual experience as a common household sponge when it comes to human relations." It didn't take Tsunami's powers to tell that the image Asuka was projecting was a crude and sinful act of wonderful skinship. Just thinking about it made Sasami… coughing to clear her mind of such impurity, "So I think you're over reacted Skuld."

Quick to fire off a counter attack, "And what exactly does her royal high-ASS, know about pleasing men." Letting the quivering mass of Norn go, Asuka was moving on to pain-in-the-ass two. "I doubt you'd even know what to do with my vassal if you were locked in a room with him without clothing!" For a demon, Asuka had sorely missed her non-earth electives.

As her sister had taught her many times before, Sasami pulled a whip out of nowhere and her leather eye mask. "Pleasure and pain 101 is a standard class that all Jurian royalty must go through." Cracking her whip expertly, and in the process knocking a boy by the name of Lelouch Lamperouge for a loop and off his high horse…um chair. "As much as I'm against hurting Shinji, a certain degree of pleasure can come from pain, and I was top in my class." Flexing her whip again, Sasami grinned at the suddenly deflated demon, "Would you like to challenge me?"

As Sasami had stated, Asuka DID have the actual experience of a household sponge, kissing Shinji being the highlight of such real life training. "I wouldn't want to show you up in your one talent. Was it going to be what you showed off here?" Asuka pointed to the stage where the next girl was taking her place. Tessa was back and was conducting Beethoven's fifth symphony and backing a cake at the same time, the girl could multi-task. "Show your fake-fiancé just what you had in store for him?"

Making the tools of Jurian Royal power disappear, Sasami just waved her head slowly back and forth. "The real power of the Jurian empire is in its Queens, and that's because the kings don't know what hit them until they are fully addicted to it." Her mother had been very firm with her that while loving your husband is good, power over him was better. "As for what I was going to do, a song was the plan, fat lot of good that seems to be now."

As Tessa came to the final crescendo, the audience leapt to there feet to applaud not only a fine piece of classical music but the completion of a five layer cake. It was going to take something special to win the talent portion and nobody on losers row had thought of it.

X-X

Taking his place at the center of the stage, Kozo laughed nervously, "Well give Suzumiya a round of applause for her rather…dramatic reciting of Edger Allen Poe's the raven." How they were going to clean up the fake blood and feathers from the exploding raven costume that poor Asahina girl was wearing was something Kozo hoped the janitorial staff found out fast. The audience did not clap, they didn't understand a thing they just saw and chose to forget about it and move on. "For the last contestant in the teenage pageant I give you yesterday's winner: Kos-Mos!"

Getting a last minute pep talk from Attim, Kos-Mos was ready for her shot at securing Shinji's safety. The security detail didn't know for sure if the winner would request Shinji, but the odds weren't in their favor. Moles had been planted in key areas of the audience to attempt to bolster the their voting, but Kos-Mos had to shine! Had to wow them with something for her talent portion.

Problem was Kos-Mos didn't have a lot of talents that translated well into the beauty pageant realm. Standing in her normal combat regalia, Kos-Mos cleared her throat and grabbed the microphone. "Good evening, today I will be demonstrating my talent at physical body alterations." Her response was a mixture of boo's and applause. Many teenagers thought it was unfair that the adult looking Kos-Mos was aloud into there pageant.

As Kos-Mos transmogrified her arm into her trusty R-scythe and proceeded to destroy a legion of Ritsuko's failed mecha's, Shinji and Hotaru were watching in shock. "I don't think this will be getting her many points," Shinji hissed out through clenched teeth. Artificial blood and several cybernetic appendages bounded off the ground. "She was doing so well up till this point too."

Unable to fathom the connection Shinji had with the walking arsenal of doom, Hotaru played along. "Well maybe the audience is filled with military enthusiasts who are taking this show of brutal strength as a good thing?" Hotaru winced as Kos-Mos screamed out 'DIE BITCH' (the Mighty bi-human envisioning Morrigan) and decapitated Shion's proto-version of Kos-Mos herself. "And maybe others like watching death?"

Kaji's jaw was slack, "That thing is crazy." He wasn't one to get thrown off by much, not after selling his soul, but watching Kos-Mos opening her stomach and sucking in a small task force of droids make him nauseous. "I mean who the hell makes something like that!"

Shion was cheering on her creation from the audience. If Kos-Mos won, Shion was going to make her husband-finder pick Shinji and the three of them were going to have a pleasure cruise that nobody would forget. "Ah yes, my lovely cabana boy will lavish upon me with all the attention I deserve." Clutching her fist, Shion bellowed, "Use the R-Cannon! BLOW IT ALL TO HELL!"

Her hands unconsciously grabbed onto Shinji and drew her brother into a protective hold, "You live with that thing?" It was more a question of reality than a question of ownership. Utena had feared her brother would be in peril alone, well if Kos-Mos was around she had nothing to fear BUT Kos-Mos. But the showing was oddly beautiful, it was a train wreck but it was made of form and fluid movements. "Shinji, I don't know how you got that thing to like you but never piss it off."

Destroying her one-hundredth opponent, her body covered in oil and smeared with transmission fluid, Kos-Mos bowed. "And that was my demonstration." Her internal appearance algorithms started booting up, the power previously re-routed to her battle programs, was clamoring and running into the red. _External appearance down 55% Audience approval down 73.5% Odds of winning .0315% _As the analysis came in, Shinji's Christmas present kicked in, a genuine soul overrode her programming allowing her to think and act without logical dictation, and knowing she just lost she summed up her frustration with, "MOTHER FU---," and synched defeat.

X- We all handle loosing differently –X

After the hour long clean up of the main stage, Kozo was ready to begin the main course. Kos-Mos's breaking of several on-air swearing laws was something Nerv would have to take care of privately, but Kozo could identify with the forlorn android, losing sucks. "Well I stand before you, not as your moderator, not as one of your judges, but as a man." Fuyutsuki nodded his head several times, "And as a man I know the pain some of you are feeling. The waiting, the anticipation, the NEED to see the lovely women that have come to Tokyo-3 not to entertain us, but to battle each other for the right, nay the privilege to call themselves Miss Tokyo-3."

Turning to the big screen, Fuyutsuki hit a button and several monitors kicked on, "But I ask you to wait just a moment longer." It was amazing what some of those women brought with them, teenagers as well, as supporting personnel. "Some of those warrior women brought with them things that we thought you'd like to see." Ryo-oki, Mokona, P-chan, a Prinny, and countless other mascots were shown with their respective owners. "For the women unable to be on the stage, for the men who aren't ashamed to say they like cute things, and for the children…we give you MASCOTS!"

A collective 'aah' rose up from the women and the men that weren't concerned with images. "Now I know many of you will disagree with the poll that was taken for the best mascot, but we apologize for the inconvenience." A drum roll sounded, "The first annual Mascot of Tokyo-3 is…" The screen went blank and the sound stopped, in a bright flash the furry little cabbit was shown sitting on Sasami's shoulder carrot in hand, "Ryo-Oki!"

The crowd both exploded in applause and angered screaming at the heralding of the cutest fluff ball that could destroy a small planet. Sasami held her beloved companion with pride and nuzzled her furry face. After the crowd died back down after such an overt showing of cuteness, Kozo continued.

"With that out of the way, let the day's main attraction begin!" the aged presenter waved as the big screen again showed the pageant icon and a collection of video's of the women getting ready. Hoots and hollers were par the course as the need for skin was getting dangerously high on the male end. Women had voodoo dolls of the twenty vivacious women of there choice, only 2000 yen per doll, and were applying plenty of pressure. "Your first contest is Washu Hibuki!"

Walking out in front of the crowd in her professors uniform, minus all the middle cloth leaving her taught belly exposed. Adjusting her glasses, "I hope you're all ready to learn," she struck a pose that caused no less than four men and two women to fall over in shock. Washu then proceeded to lecture the arena on inter-spacial gravimetric synergy, which while earning her yet another scientific award for excellence put the crowd to sleep.

"How are you doing, Utena?" Shinji whispered to his semi-sister while Washu got some water. Anthy had done well, very well, but Shinji could sense Utena's concern. "Anthy did great, I'm sure the audience agrees with me." Anthy was a mystery to Shinji still, he loved her dearly, but at times the quiet girl was just so different in her thought process. "Her dance with you was poetry in motion, don't be so worried."

Giving Shinji a noogie, Utena tried to play off her concern. "Oh I know she did great, and everybody here did to. I'm just hoping…Attim does a good job." Both Anthy and Shinji realized that Attim just struck a cord in Utena for some reason. Anthy had her little dialogue with Utena saying that only if they 'shared' something beyond supreme worship from a distance would occur. As for Shinji, he just thought it was best to not think deeply on it. _I still can't believe she wore that to the twister match…it was so freakishly hot!_

"Attim will do well, I just know it," Shinji's voice dropped a marginal degree. Something about Attim was maddeningly familiar to him, but he couldn't place it. "Looks like Ritsuko-san is up next…why does she have ping-pong balls?"

The next three minutes was the result of Ritsuko taking one to many before-show drinks and a little pill she kept for the really bad days. Shinji's eyes were covered the instant Utena and Hotaru realized what was going to happen, and Ritsuko was dragged off the stage minus three projectiles and an audience begging for her phone number.

X- Don't do drugs kids or that will happen to you –X

Walking out onto the stage, the crowd chanting her name, Hild was beside herself. Sensing the angel's intent and location, the CEO of hell knew she had no time left to deal with it. "Ladies and Gentlemen, today I will show you a magic trick," the exquisite specimen of demonic creation said huskily into the mic.

The men were salivating before the last word left the Hild's lips. From his place in the judge's booth, Shinji just felt pride and a sense of happiness. He didn't know Hild to well, but from what she said, what she promised him, he was willing to believe in her. When the lights dimmed, and the floor started to pulsate with energy though, the whole stadium gasped.

Radiating outward from Hild was pulsating blue lightning, Belldandy was beside herself with worry as she witnessed Hild's bindings snapping off one after another. Power unknown to any goddess was radiating out from the epicenter. All was dark except for Hild and her growing blue sphere of energy. What started out the size of a semi truck started to grow smaller and smaller, a sphere that was covered in a zebra pattern.

"Shinji make her stop!" Hotaru asked of the boy to her side. Even the Senshi of rebirth knew a greater power when she felt it. Hotaru had never been so frightened in her life, but witnessing first hand Hild's power no other affect on any that knew it wasn't just a trick. "She'll destroy us all if she keeps doing this!"

Before Shinji could even budge, it stopped. The ball was hovering in Hild's hand no bigger than an apple. "You will not ruin his fun," Hild said with such evil that it when Kozo heard it he fell over. Gripping the ball firmly, she squeezed it with all her might. Blood poured from her fist, dripping and pooling at her feet and leaving trails down her white satin gown as it did. "Today was a bad day," Hild murmured and turned back to the crowd.

Stunned, no sound was made. What had started out the greatest showing of digital illumination became such a macabre scenario that many felt ill. The negative waves that emanated from Hild caused many to rush to bathroom stalls or spill on the ground.

Knowing she'd just thrown her chance at winning away, Hild didn't feel bitter at all. She had kept her children safe, Urd and Shinji both, and it was a mother's duty to suffer for their protection. "Maybe it was a little much?" Hild chuckled and looked to the side of the stage, "I believe you are up dear." Walking past the next contestant, Belldandy rushed to the stage to sing her song of cleansing.

"You just got yourself pulled off the list," Attim said to Hild as the CEO rounded the curtain. "I was going to see to it that the highest level of spiritual bindings were going to be used on you the next time I saw you but…" Attim had just gotten the report from Shigeru about the pattern blue as Hild took the stage, and the follow up call after her demonstration was over. "I don't know why you did it, but thanks."

Fancying the woman with still a short lifespan, Hild rolled her head back and laughed. "A mother's duty is never done, dear child, never done at all." Heading to the back of the pack of women, Hild felt better than she had in a long time.

X- Don't piss with Hild or you'll beg for death –X

"Well there you have it everybody!" Kozo said without really believing it. "You've seen the last of our talent women, the ever lovely Attim M-Zack and her moving rendition of Ophelia from Hamlet, and her he he 'moving' dance afterward." Where was she? The crowd wanted the unofficial twenty first contestant. "So unless anybody has anything else, it is time to…" The lights dimmed as the power was drained from them, the inverted pentagram of green flame formed just to Kozo's left, "oh! I think we have our last contestant!"

Bursting from her demonic gate, Morgan stood in all her unholy splendor, "Can't have this end without the winner can you?" Her emerald hair billowed outward from the force of her arrival. "Dancing, singing, is that all you people can do for a talent? Well if that's the case I think I'll just…"

Twin explosions erupted on both sides of the succubus cutting her dialogue off. Asuka and Hild rushed from the left while Kos-Mos the right. Attim was still trying to get into her battle gear when Morrigan arrived. Flame walls sprang up from Asuka, and Hild had her servants at her beck and call. They were ready this time, they'd not be fooled again on the third night.

"You're not doing a damn thing today, Morrigan. Other than being beaten into a paste that is!" Asuka snarled and rushed her old rival. So blinded by emotions, the princess of hell wildly attacked her opponent, clawing and fire bolting only to have her attacks dodged and countered.

Hild and Kos-Mos were more discrete in there attacks, aiming to move Morrigan to a position they could unload on her. Only problem was Asuka's actions did more the hinder them than help. Kos-Mos would send a blast from her R-cannon and move Morrigan away from the front of the stage only to have Asuka move her right back to it. When it came to Hild's corrupted winds and waves of unholy blight, Morrigan was forced to go on the defense lest she be devoured, but before any real attack could be made Asuka would get in the way.

All the while Shinji watched on in utter horror. Utena and Hotaru tried to hold him, but they were to mesmerized by the battle to really hold him down. "STOP THIS!" Shinji screamed as he broke onto the stage, dodging flying debris. "Don't hurt her! Let her speak her peace! She doesn't want to hurt anybody!" His pleas fell on deaf ears, the women to obsessed with seeing Morrigan pay for her crimes. "Please, Asuka…Mama Hild…Kos-Mos just stop this!"

Sliding on the ground, one of Hild's little ploys, Morrigan was on her back staring up at the descending foot of Asuka. "Oh shit, little angry today ladies?" Morrigan tried to sound in control but she was running out of room fast. Rolling to dodge the gouts of fire Hild was sending her way, Morrigan didn't realize she was moving right into a checkmate.

"I'll enjoy breaking you again," Kos-Mos wasn't playing this time. It wasn't a beating she was going to administer, it was an execution. Morrigan had played with them to much, gotten to close to her Master and joked about it? Not this time. Her hand was already in the form of her Scythe when Morrigan came to a stop, Hild's blast was in front of her not behind to prevent further acts of pain avoidance. "I won't forgive you," with all her might Kos-Mos's blade went down and slashed Shinji's back wide open. The wound was deep enough for bone to show through, blood spouted out like a fountain. Kos-Mos looked on as if dreaming. It wasn't possible, it was just a glitch in her visual receptors.

The stage was silent as was the audience. What they believed to be nothing but a scripted battle for the shows main attraction had resulted in the critical wounding of a judge. Misato and Utena screamed so loud as they called out his name that they went horse, the guard at Misato's detention wing was knocked out with one punch as Misato made her way out, Utena was held back by Hotaru who knew things were just going to get worse, tears streamed down both of there faces. All his friends and potential lovers were all in shock as the boy's body refused to dispel the illusion of the human condition.

Covered in the blood of the man she pledged herself to, Morrigan smiled weakly at the boy as he smiled back at here. "Why did you have to go and do that, I'm capable of protecting myself. Anyway I'm yours to command not the other way around." Her insides were chilled, the world that she had come to know thanks to this boy was fading away. He had given her the gift of human compassion and understanding, human emotions flowed through her thanks to his blood. And now he was drenching her in it because foolish women were to possessive and infantile in there affection.

"Didn't…want you…hurt…" was all Shinji managed to say before his eyes fell closed and his breath started coming out in slow ragged bursts.

"Belldandy…where in the 9 hells is Belldandy! Get her out here now! Heal him!" Hild was screaming as she ran to the downed succubus and her valiant human protector. Turning to her step-daughter, Hild only saw Asuka backing away with what appeared to be tears in her eyes. "Get help before its to late!"

Attim was at Kos-Mos's side, the android wasn't moving, was so close to appearing dead herself that Attim couldn't do anything but see to her. "Kos-Mos snap out of it, we have to get Shinji to a hospital NOW! Only you can move that fast with him! WAKE UP!" Attim slammed her fist into Kos-Mos's stomach but that only made the mecha fall down and still keep her eyes on what she had wrought. "This can't be how it ends…not like this!"

"Its not going to end," Morrigan gently freed herself from under her beloved. "Had you fools actually listened to him, you'd have known I was only playing and never meant any harm." Morrigan was extra careful not to add undo stress to Shinji as she moved to his side. "Idiots that don't know love isn't making the one you care for see you above all others, its wanting them happy even if its not with you." Clapping her hands together as Hild ran off to find Belldandy, who had been so weakened by the song of cleansing that if left her sleeping, a non-to kind slap to the face cured that.

"Wake up beloved, it's not your time to go yet," Morrigan ran her hands across the wound and funneled her new powers into Shinji. "Be healed. Come back to those fools that love you, and come back to me." Her eyes closed and her body jerked as liquid joy flowed through her in the form of white magic.

Bone reknit itself, flesh sealed itself together and blood was again making its annual journey through his body. Helped to the stage by her sister, Belldandy and Urd stood stock still as they saw it. "How is that possible, Bell? Demons can't use white magic but she's…she healed him!" Urd had been just as frantic as Hild was about getting Belldandy to Shinji's side to heal him, but seeing Morrigan perform the art just as well as her sister was to much to believe. "What could have caused that change in her?"

Though weakened, Belldandy hadn't hesitated for an instant getting to the stage. Seeing now what she had, she felt a rush of bliss coursing through her. "It was as Misato said, she feasted on his blood." Shinji's blood, whatever was in Shinji it was powerful enough to grant a being of the utter darkness the sanctity of holy magic, he broke the cardinal rule of reality. "He truly is something special."

After handing Shinji to Hild, a very pissed off Morrigan went back to center stage. "You all suck," the succubus spat out after seeing nobody move to help, nobody go to do anything but watch the spectacle. "I hope you enjoyed the show," and with that she summoned her portal and vanished again. She'd see to Shinji's convalescence later.

X- Even good people screw up when emotions involved –X

Fifteen minutes after Morrigan's dramatic entrance and departure, Kozo stood at the remains of the stage. "Well folks, lets not let this end on a sad note. Yes one of your judges was harmed protecting a contestant from some overzealous participants, but nobody is being held accountable for it as in the end no harm was done." Kozo ended looking at Shinji and gave the boy a warm grin. _Boy is made of brass balls, unlike his old man._

Weakly Shinji gave the kind gentleman a wave. While the wound was recovered without even leaving a scar, the blood loss left him tired and weak. Utena refused to leave his side neither did Kos-Mos who Shinji had hugged and thanked for doing what she thought was best. Both women would have to be pride away from him, and a legion of others hovered outside the judges' box. It was Shinji's wish to keep finish the pageant despite his injury.

"I'm sure a lot of you are ready to go home, this old man is ready for a nice shot of bourbon and along night sleep," Kozo got a few chuckles out of that. "Now with your responses added to our own, we have the winners of both pageants. Once your name is called please come to the stage for the crowning and selecting your judge. Oh and just in case you didn't know it, a judge can only be selected once so, don't waste time."

The lights dimmed and twin search lights started moving across the area of the stadium where the contestants sat. "The winner of the Miss Teen Tokyo-3 pageant with a vote of three judges and the audience vote goes to…Usagi Tsukino! Usagi as you'll remember graced us with a showing of discus throwing and gymnastics." A round of applause went up through the crowd, it didn't get the Senshi by surprise that there leader won, as Usagi was beautiful inside and out through and through.

But she was also being held back by all her friends, hugging her and giving her congratulatory kisses to the cheek. It was their hope to slow her long enough to have somebody else win and get Shinji, if they couldn't have him they were going to try like hell to keep Usagi from sinking her claws in. The common thought was _She got the last one, this one is mine._

So while Usagi tried to free herself from the masses, Kozo continued, "And the winner…of the Miss Tokyo-3 pageant is…" The drum roll seemed to last forever as everybody waited for the announcement. "With a total of four judges and the audience vote is…Attim M-Zak!"

The crowd erupted in cheers at the telling, Hild had been the shoe-in until the pageant show knocked her out. Then it was Morrigan who all but spit on the audience casting her chances to the wayside with only Shinji voting for her. But unlike Usagi, Attim was on the stage in a matter of seconds.

"So Miss M-Zak, as you got here first you have your pick of the judges and where and when you want to go, all courtesy of the Tendo-Talent company." Kozo stepped aside so Kaji could put the tiara amidst Attim's luscious ebony tresses. "Just say the word and…"

Grabbing the microphone from Kozo's hand, Attim opened her mouth to speak but found her voice had betrayed her. She had won? Her the failed experiment was a beauty queen?! Didn't she say that she'd come clean with Shinji if she won? "I chose…" eyes on him, never looking away, "Ikari Shinji, tomorrow, the training barracks at Nerv. Going to whip you into shape." Helping Shinji up onto the stage, his face a charming scarlet, Attim held him close as the cheers and accolades continued to poor in. Nobody was going to ruin it for her, not now even though they'd all trade places with her in a heart beat.

"And there you have it folks! Miss Tokyo-3 and her chosen escort," Kozo gestured to Attim as she walked off the stage arm in arm with Shinji. "It was a wild ride getting here, and we all hope to see you again next year!" Dropping the mic, Kozo walked off followed by all the other judges and Kos-Mos as the lights went out and the crowd couldn't get enough.

X-X

Author Notes

THE END OF THIS ARC!!!

Finally, thing dragged on for a bit. This chapter was a bit more serious as the last few have been rampant funny. Like to keep the mix up otherwise the humor gets stale. As for the next arc… ^_^ I already have it planned.

Want a hint?

What We Make of it: Shinji Vs Tokyo-3

Ja Mata!

Zentrodie (zentrodie – dot – geo – at – yahoo –dot –com )


	31. Lets hide in that mansion

Standard Disclaimer

My poor novel goes unwritten but when work is making ya pissed you don't want to stress yourself out more with over thinking and planning. No you want quick easy fun relief and that's what this story is. Hope you're ready for the next arc cause its about to begin!

X-X

What We Make of It

Chapter -31

Something Charming this way comes

- or -

Don't Drink the Water

"I know you don't have anything to do right now, but do you really have to spend your time down here?" Ritsuko asked with a huff. She was doing very delicate and precise research and having Misato brooding behind her wasn't helping. "Anyway, so what if his Hild person is Shinji's adopted mother now, at least you can coddle and mother him at work, right?"

Legs spread eagle, arms splayed backward, Misato leaned back and stared at the ceiling. "Yeah, but not having him at the apartment…it's just so big now." Especially when Sasami and Washu pulled up roots, Asuka moved out, and Shinji's old closet no longer had a recharging station in it. "Quiet to. I miss him already."

Carefully extruding a drop of what appeared to be blood, Ritsuko used the eye dropper to add the liquid to a beaker she had on a burner. "It's been three days, Misato. And I'm sure whatever Attim is throwing at him will make the boy all the more eager to get out." The last day of the pageant wasn't something Ritsuko wanted to remember, especially not the indecent exposure ticket she got. "And I thought you said you were terrified of Asuka and Sasami gave you cavities."

Rolling her eyes, Misato didn't WANT to agree with Ritsuko on anything, it would be a sign of weakness. "It was a package deal, and while some parts were better than others, I could have done without the others." But with Shinji living at Hild's as of yet undisclosed location, it meant Misato didn't have to play mommy when she wanted to play bed-buddies. "What are you working on anyway? I've seen you playing with your chemistry set a lot lately."

Holding her breath, Ritsuko added a few more chemicals to her mixture. "A way of making amend to Washu, and getting me off her test subject list," Ritsuko finally said after she extracted a sample of the golden liquid into a test tube. "You remember me mentioning a boy named Tenchi right?"

Thinking back hard, Misato had the vague recollection of it. "The guy and his wives you sent to an alternate reality right?" Must be nice to have all the food and nookie you could ever want without the stipulation of paying for it. "Washu's daughter was part of it, as was Sasami's sister." That was somebody Misato never wanted to meet. If Sasami was any indication, Misato prophesied Ayeka was the queen of the stuck up bitch department.

"That's the one," Ritsuko was astonished that Misato's beer stained brain recalled anything at this point. Shinji-absence, the scientist noted, drove Misato into alcohol fueled rages. "Anyway, Washu said that there was something about Tenchi that just acted as an attractant to women, and from the blood samples I had I found out why."

Sitting up, Misato was genuinely intrigued, "Go on, so this Tenchi was a real ladies man or something?" Loving gossip, longing for companionship, Misato was never going to pass up an edge on getting Shinji or something to idly talk about. "He exude pheromones or something that were higher grade than others?" and could be injected into her so she'd get Shinji's full attention.

Almost dropping the test tube, Ritsuko bulked, "How the…it took me three months to come to that conclusion!" Damn Misato and her common sense! Shaking her head, "Anyway, yes you are correct. It was stronger than the other samples I took from the men at Nerv. That was until I ran it against Shinji's." It explained a little more than Ritsuko liked. "Turns out if this Tenchi boy's was ten times stronger than a normal mans, Shinji's is ten times stronger than Tenchi's."

Misato's eyes popped open, "Ten times ten…so Shinji has the drawing power of a hundred guys?" Made a logical type of sense, but pheromones only worked to draw the moths to the flame, it was personality that made the moths sacrifice themselves to dive into it. "Well now that you know this, what do you plan to do with it?"

Setting the sample in what looked like a super microwave, Ritsuko started the machine. "Find a way to counter it so mindless harlots don't swarm the unlucky men that have this condition." And as Washu was doing this for Ryoko, it was to prevent Tenchi from adding any more competition. Jerking her thumb to the machine, "This little baby will analyze the chemical structure and come up with an antidote, should take about two weeks to make it."

"So what did you just put in there?" Misato quipped as she picked up the large beaker of golden fluid. It was warm to the touch and smelled heavenly, Misato was tempted to drink it. "I mean if this is from Shinji," Misato had no doubt it was, she could feel it. "And it's supposed to be an extraction of pheromones, what is it exactly?"

Rubbing her eyes, long days of work to force the memory of ping-pong balls from her mind, Ritsuko sighed. "Basically it's Spanish Fly on such a powerful level that it would make any woman that drank it into a sex obsessed monster." A shudder went down Ritsuko's back, she created a monster and it was in Misato's hand. If men ever found out the serum existed no woman would be safe from it. "I had to dilute the focus or the analyzer would never be able to make a global cure, unfortunately it only affects women so don't go thinking you can get Shinji to take a drink."

With the beaker centimeters from her lips, Misato froze. "What the HELL did you make? This…in the hands of men…could you imagine the damage?" Knowing what she had to do, Misato poured the liquid down the drain and turned the faucet on full blast. Once the last trace of the liquid was gone, Misato's head bobbed, "Thank Kami-sama for that, sorry Rits but it had to be destroyed," Misato said noticing the horrified look on the doctor's face.

"Oh no…nonononononononononono!" Ritsuko dropped another beaker of black liquid that shattered on the ground. "Misato do you know what you've done!" It was the apocalypse if they didn't act fast. Running to her computer console, Ritsuko started hammering keys in and getting the Magi to run a hypothetical situation. "This isn't happening, this is so not happening."

Getting off her chair, Misato headed to Ritsuko's terminal, "Look I'm sorry, but I had to get rid of it. I won't risk never being able to go outside again because some man has that and has no qualms with using it on me." And while it would only be a few, those few would prove how deep humans could sink.

The calculations bar was at fifty percent, but Ritsuko knew the outcome before she was told it. She just wanted the Magi's countermeasure. "No Misato, you didn't destroy it. That's what the liquid smeared on the floor was for, what you did was just infect all of Toyko-3 with the stuff. IT'S FUCKING WATER SOLUBLE! The concentration was so high that what you just dumped into the water system is enough to infect the whole city!"

Her arms fell to her side and a ball of ice spawned in her stomach, "We have to do something…something fast!" It hadn't been her intention, and the cure was currently in the making. "Do something Ritsuko!"

No blame, not for now anyway, Ritsuko had too much to do before worrying about skinning Misato alive and wearing the woman's face as a mask. "Ok…according to the magi we have less than five hours to get something together and going. At the rate it will diffuse into the water and be used either directly or in cooking or what have you. Adding in the time it'll take to take over the minds of the drinkers…we're looking at a day before the shit hits the fan."

Thoughts of Shinji and Attim seemed distant and ages ago already, Misato had more pressing matters. "What can we do with such short time?" fear edged into her voice. It wasn't a life and death, but it would be life altering if the men found out that the city was about to be overrun with sex crazed women. "How long does it last anyway?" Misato tried to keep the hope out of her voice, but if it would only last a day or so…they could just lock themselves up.

Asking the Magi for a plan, Ritsuko shook her head, "Its permanent Misato that is unless the antidote is taken. This is why I was working here alone and not telling anybody." The Magi, if it could, was crying out in frustration at the peril the women of Tokyo-3 were to face. "All of our bodily functions revolve around water so we can't tell people not to use it, our only real hope is containment."

Before Misato could speak, the Magi popped up a solution. It would be hard to do and involve a lot of lying, but what good plan didn't. Misato and Ritsuko read the recommendations, read them again, and ran out to get started. They had to get the men and women into separate shelters and get them on lock down until the antidote was finished then they would pour it into the water and unseal the doors.

X – Can you see where this is going? – X

Shinji's body ached but he felt good too. He knew he was out of shape, but while he at first was timid about Attim and her plans for toughening him up it wasn't as bad as he thought. Washu changed the barracks for the two from being a tiny shed to a fully immersive jungle environment that was the size of five football fields. Only problem was Attim had Shinji unnerved. She was just so achingly beautiful, strong, but at the same time childish.

Sneaking up on Shinji as the boy drank heavily from a water bottle, Attim was beside herself as well. She had promised herself she'd come clean with Shinji, tell him the truth about herself, but so far she'd just worked him hard during the day and had fun with him. Taking a page from Misato's book, Attim used her body to tease the poor boy, but with each tease was the hint of reality coming to the surface. Lining up her site, Attim fired a BB which flicked off the back of Shinji's head. "Bang, you're dead Shinji-kun."

Rubbing the sore spot on his head, Shinji chuckled and turned to see Attim behind him. Ever so daintily he coughed and blushed when he saw her. "Attim-san, I couldn't find you, guess I'm still not too good at hearing you." She wasn't in her black battle outfit anymore, she was in camouflage. Her top however was tied into a knot that showed off so much taught and smooth skin that even Shinji reacted. "I'm really tired right now too."

Walking up to him, Attim swiped the bottle of water and looked at it. Sure it was a silly teenage conception, the indirect kiss, but it made the young part of Attim's mind buzz. Slugging back a large mouthful she handed it back to the boy, "You'll get there Shinji, don't worry. And I think you earned a break, I've been riding you pretty hard for the last few days." The unintentional imagery that conjured in both of their minds left them pink faced and short of breath. Slapping herself back to a calm state, "Anyway, I found a hot spring and I thought you could go for a dip. I can smell you a mile away."

Sniffing at his armpits, Shinji had to agree that he was several degrees of ripe. "I guess all this exercise isn't very conducive for hygiene," he said with a small laugh. Attim just brought it out of him, he felt safe and relaxed with her. When they weren't training in small arms and stealth tactics, they were talking, chumming around, and having fun. Attim was more girly than Shinji thought at first, admitting to liking plush toys and sweets, Shinji was developing a small crush on her despite himself. Following the vivacious woman, Shinji could smell the sulfur before Attim showed him the pool, "Have to leave it to Washu, she thinks of everything."

Washu was a security threat in a tiny explosive package, and Attim wasn't sure if she ever wanted to trust the pint-sized genius ever again. "I don't know if I'd go that far, but she is capable of some insane levels of technology." Drawing in a huge drought of air, Attim sighed heavily. Her brain was calling her a coward, but her heart wasn't ready yet. She wanted to continue to enjoy the work/play atmosphere they had going on. "Well go on Shinji, get in."

Blushing deeply, Shinji looked at the inviting water and back at Attim, "Um…could you…possibly…I know you said we need to stick together due to the size of the jungle but…" Shinji couldn't possible be expected to bathe with Attim so close, he would be too embarrassed. Even the black face pain under her eyes just pulled him in and made her that more attractive.

Feeling a naughty but heavily wanted sensation ripple through her, Attim realized what was going on. In a decisive move, she bit the bullet and removed her top and undid the button and zipper of her pants, she was pleasantly greeted by a wide eyed and babbling Shinji. "This is just a bath Shinji, you and I have to rely on each other. You have to trust me with your life and I have to trust you to trust me. Think of this as building that bond." A rush of endorphins sank through her as she could feel Shinji's eyes on her as she stood before him naked as the day she was created. Stepping into the refreshing water she sank in up to her shoulders.

Summing up all the willpower he could, Shinji kept himself in control. "You…you're right. I do trust you Attim," he almost added the 'san' but Attim had been adamant that the formalities drop while in training. Fumbling with his own cloths he joined the minx in the spring and as he felt her brush up against him and pat his back, his heart was in her hands.

X – Don't forget Attim is technically only about eight years old –X

"What the hell was that bullshit at the barracks?" Asuka yelled as she nursed her aching body. Gathering her menagerie of ufo-catcher toys from Misato's apartment, he made a side trip to the decommissioned portal to Sasami's home. "I almost got seriously hurt there!"

Doing her best to now show her own injured status, Sasami held her hand to her mouth and laughed. "Looks like somebody tried to break Washu's 'no entry' barrier. Guess you're not as strong as you thought you were." Sasami's own body hurt like bloody hell, having tried to teleport in to see Shinji herself, the princess thought Washu would have at least let HER break the rules.

Collecting Sumomo and Kotoko, Kos-Mos watched the princesses bicker with bemused interest. Turning her soul on to get more acquainted with how it felt to truly be alive, Kos-Mos was more angry with herself than happy with the sights before her. "Why are you keeping your left hand behind your back Sasami?" It wasn't as if Kos-Mos didn't know, it was just more fun for Sasami to try and worm her way out of it.

Having never expected to step foot in Misato's apartment again, save for if Shinji insisted they visit, Sasami was ill prepared for a two front battle. Being called by Asuka to show up was one thing, but having Kos-Mos there was totally unexpected. "I cut myself cooking, and anyway I better hurry back before the gate closes and I have to head to Nerv so I can get back home."

Grabbing at Sasami's hand, Asuka's eyebrows arched and her fangs gleamed in the light. "Oh this looks like MY hand. Did the little princess try and sneak in against her guardians wishes?" Spoiled brat probably thought she'd have preferential treatment, but Asuka knew the truth. Truth was Washu was a conniving and evil imp of a thing that got enjoyment at the harassment of others. In other words, Asuka like and felt a kinship for Washu. "As for your little gate, looks like it closed already," Asuka pointed to the now normal broom closet.

Turning back frantically, Sasami opened and shut the door opening to trigger a lingering trace of portal energy. "Damn it!" the coquettish princess swore, then covered her mouth in embarrassment. "I mean, I felt like walking anyway," with Ryo-oki at home, it wasn't like Sasami could go for a ride anyway.

Laughing all the way to the sink, Asuka flipped on the tap and got a glass of water. "Going to miss this place, it was _sooooo _easy to play with my vassal here. He was putty in my hands and had no room to hide." Asuka's grin faded and she chugged her water back, "Mama-Hild isn't going to be as fun to toy with as Misato was and not as easy to get around." Hild set the ground rules fast for her step-daughter, and none of them were to Asuka's liking.

"I agree, this Hild person is very difficult to judge, but thankfully she accepted my role as guardian of Shinji-sama," Kos-Mos powered Kotoko and Sumomo off to conserve battery power. Helping herself to some tea, the android turned to Sasami, "I was sorry to hear that she denied your request for a spatial link between your home and Shinji's new closet." The sarcasm could be felt by Misato's neighbors even though they didn't hear it. "Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to the barracks to wait for my master." Leaving the gawking princesses behind, Kos-Mos couldn't help but feel strange, a warmth was growing in her stomach she'd never felt before.

Scoffing, Sasami ran her hand under the tap to sooth her throbbing wound, "Can you believe that? Kos-Mos as Shin-chan's official guardian, Ryo-oki could do a better job." While it was debatable if the tiny furball of destruction could or not, Hild had already accepted Kos-Mos. A wave of nausea flooded Sasami's body, "Hey…you feel funny?"

Setting down her cup of water, Asuka's body felt warmer than usual, her mind started getting a little fuzzy too. "Now that you mention it, yeah," the demoness said without her usual blinding hatred. "Something feels strange," heading to the living room, getting the chibi-Shinji plushy she had made at the expense of giving back the damned soul of the maker, Asuka turned on the television. "Hey princess check this out, looks like you missed the boat on getting out of here."

Cup of tea in hand, the last of the pot Kos-Mos had made when first arriving, "What is it?" The answer Sasami got from the ball of all things happy and lovely that was Asuka, was a finger pointed at the screen. Bending at the knees, Sasami read the screen aloud, "This is not a test, an angel attack is imminant, men please proceed to shelters A through F and women shelters G through M, Nerv employees included" Standing back up she turned to Asuka, "What do you think it means?"

Heading to the door, Asuka just shook her head, "I don't know, but for today I think I'm going to listen to it." She felt like she was burning up inside, that something was missing and she had to have it but just didn't know what it was. "I think you should come too."

More bewildered by Asuka's sudden change in demeanor than the fear that something was going on, Sasami nodded and gathered her things. "I just hope that Shin-chan and Attim-san are going to be ok." Being in a separate reality was sure going to make it safer for them, but that didn't make Sasami feel any better. "Let's get going before the streets get to crowded."

Taking one last glance at the television, Asuka couldn't shake the suspicious feeling she had. Why separate the men and the women that never happened before. And why did they request Nerv personnel as well, didn't the humans need those sad sacks to fight the angel thing? "Maybe this is a test or something," Asuka said to herself before shutting the door and fighting the throng of humanity towards the respective shelters.

X – People can feel problems – X

"I tried contacting Attim, but it seems that whatever Washu did to the barracks it's preventing communication," Misato groaned. The shelters were filling up well with the threat of physical danger and the quarantine field around the town they requested due to an outbreak of Ebola that was transmuted by air was keeping the town well under protection. "How are things looking on your end Ritsuko?"

Wanting something to drink like nobodies business, Ritsuko muttered low. "I'm reading that the shelters are filled and they're about to initiate the locking program on the doors." But that wasn't good enough, she had to finish the automation of the antidote or risk it never being administered. "We can't risk this being known to the outside world or they'll just make the formula again. So for the love of your damn internet broadcast of Shinji sleep you have to help me!"

Logging off from her website, Misato longingly trailing her fingers down the screen, she joined her friend. "What do I have to do?" There would be time for love after the threat of ravishing men at random was gone. Ritsuko filled Misato in on the true nature of the serum flowing through the city. At first it was just a natural attractant to women, making certain men stand out more than others. The effect of direct contact with women though was more drastic, it created a need, an addiction for not just affection but physical longing. Contained in Shinji or Tenchi it only meant they were walking pillars of attention, in a girl however it overrode normal decorum and morals. They'd be themselves but with the insatiable need for a good hard petting. "Damn science for this, Ritsuko."

"Yes damn science indeed," Ritsuko agreed not really listening and more busy trying to sync up the machine creating the antidote to the water system. "This damn thing isn't working! One of us is going to have to stay behind and administer it directly or it'll never get done." And that meant two weeks alone without anything that had touched water. No bathing, less cooking options, canned or bottled drinks. "Rock paper scissors you for it?"

Watching the locking mechanism initiate for the male shelters, Misato waited for Maya to communicate that the women's was at 100% occupancy. "You know I can never beat you in that, lets arm wrestle for it?" Misato didn't want to wander through town alone for two weeks while the men bitched and moaned about getting out and the women bitch and moaned about wanting the men. She would rather drink up and be part of the crowd that way she'd have company. With the amount of junk food pumped into the shelters it was going to be awesome in there.

"Yeah that sounds fair, me an intellectual verse you a modern day amazon," Ritsuko scoffed as she continued in futility to get the machines to work. Snapping off a vital part, Ritsuko threw it in frustration, "To hell with it, I'll stay. I'm the one that as to blame for this, I guess I should make amends for it." Just as long as nobody came to know what really happened, or she'd never survive. The men would just be annoyed at being bored, but if the women were let known that they were turned into maniacs…well then Ritsuko would be lucky to escape. "Best they just think they're antsy is all…as long as they stay locked up they won't know what's happened to them." With the absence of a man they'd never feel the full affect, but if a man snuck into the wrong shelter…he'd be killed by so much affection.

Pouring a glass of scotch for her friend, Misato nodded, "Then one last drink before I go join the crowd of unknowing women." Having just as much at risk thanks to being the person to pour the vile mix into the water system, Misato wasn't about to let any secrets out. Dropping a few ice cubes from the nearby fridge, Misato forgot she made the ice after she contaminated the water supply. "To two weeks of vacation! And not having to put our stuff on display for it!"

"That's right Maya, Misato will come in from the secret entrance so get the doors locked," Ritsuko said over the phone as she grabbed Misato's offering and chugged it back without looking. When the crushed ice slide down her throat, it was a bomb going off in her head. "Oh for fuck's sake Misato! ICE…ICE!"

Crunching a cube in her mouth as she heard, realization dawned a moment to late, and Misato spat out only half of what when in. "I…I just forgot!" Rumaging around blindly Misato grabbed her cel phone and frantically sent a text message. "We have to go now, Ritsuko, and I mean right now!"

Trying with no luck to expunge the fluid before it affected her, Ritsuko just shook her head, "No I have to stay for the antidote, I can't lock myself up. Anyway without a man around we'll be fine." But even as she spoke, Ritsuko could see what Misato was getting at.

"We know where Shinji is and we have access to the barracks. We'd go straight for him, we have to go now!" Misato grabbed her friends hand. "Leave a note here how to do it, Shinji and Attim are our only hope now…that and hoping Kos-Mos hasn't been infected already." Misato's text message was quick and to the point 'Water contaminated, turns people crazy, don't let Attim/Shinji drink. Come to Ritsuko's lab for cure details.'.

Eying the lab one last time, Ritsuko and Misato ran off to the secret entrance to the shelters. They missed Maya's panicked call about the doors for the female shelters not locking. The two sets of shelters operated on independent systems, A-F and G-M were linked to themselves alone, so the men were fine…the women however…were free to roam. As for Kos-Mos knowing of her own contamination she imparted the message to her tiny replacements and shut herself down outside the barracks.

X- And so begins Resident Evil – LoveLove – X

Sitting up with a big yawn, Shinji was actually sad to know his two weeks with Attim were up. It had been a strange, hard, painful, but overall enjoyable time. He had really gotten to know Attim, and not just admire the exquisite casing she was in. While she undoubtedly one of the strongest people he knew, he know knew she wasn't invulnerable. She had flaws, short tempered was one of them he found out, but she was human.

He also learned a great deal more about himself over the last two weeks. He wasn't the weakling he thought he was, just unfocused and untrained. After the first week of hand-to-hand training, which was a lot of being held close by Attim, left him frazzled and more than a little comfortable around the firm body of his trainer, he learned he wasn't overly strong but that he could make up for it in speed and agility.

After that first week, Attim gave him a present that she said was made just for him. And he had to agree with the lovely woman, that the weapon he was presented suited him perfectly. Twin wrist contraptions that shot tranquilizer darts out of the top were what she gave him. Attim knew that Shinji would never want to kill, so the next best thing was a fast acting sedative that would knock the biggest of men out in mere seconds.

Developed by Washu at Attim's request, the duel weapons fired essentially toothpicks covered in a chemical stew that easy to make and fast to reload. Shinji spent the better part of the second week getting acquainted with his tools and learning from Attim. She taught him that the best attack is one that the enemy didn't see coming. Stealth and silence were far more effective than an army of loud rampaging fools.

After his daily lesson the two bonded, got closer, and made Shinji feel more than a little like he was betraying somebody. While Sasami and he weren't really a couple, Shinji felt a powerful attraction to Attim, and that nagging feeling that he knew her already. The bath scene played out four more times, and each had the same result. A very flustered and embarrassed boy trying not to gawk at the winner of the Miss Tokyo-3 contest only failed a few times to keep his eyes shoulder or higher.

For her part, Attim faired no better than her ward. She ran him hard during the day to prepare him to protect himself, but also to keep her from being foolish. Her courage hadn't peeked, still wanting to tell him the truth, thank him for giving her short life purpose, but never getting to it. Her time with him in the spring was a delicious mix of pleasure and pain. She could feel his eyes on her and hers on him, she wanted to admit that it made her bashful to know how hungrily he looked at her, and how she enjoyed her view as well.

Attim didn't go easy on Shinji, and was pleasantly surprised with how quickly he adapted to the CQC. That and being so close to him, practically melding behind him to properly position him for his training was more reward for her than she could have asked. But it was over, time to go back to the real world. No more sleeping under the simulated stars together, no more meals cooked on campfires, no it was time to face reality.

Brewing up a pot of tea for them to drink over the last breakfast they were going to have, Attim smiled at Shinji as the groggy boy made his way over. "You did very well, Shinji. I was glad we had this time together." And if that wasn't the understatement of the year than Asuka's father is only just misunderstood. "Want to eat something or head back into the real world and get a decent meal for a change?"

Taking the steaming cup from Attim's outstretched hand, Shinji sniffed the fragment offering. "I think I could do for something more tasty than field rations and canned soup if you can." Sipping the tea, Shinji tried to real in his growing depression. He really was going to miss Attim, they just clicked on a level he couldn't fathom. She seemed lost and alone just like he felt most of the time.

"I thought you'd say that so I packed our backpacks already and we're ready to go," Attim's voice didn't betray her own loathing of walking out that door. Shouldering her bag, she offered Shinji his. "Now keep up on your training once you get back out there. You were getting very good with those darts, but your hand to hand is lacking."

Not noticing the weight as much as he had on the first day, Shinji nodded. "I just don't like hurting people so, I guess it's something I'll have to work on." He was great at dodging and deflecting attacks, but when it came to attack, things got bad. Shinji would throw a punch or kick but when he saw Attim's face he stalled and she'd counter and send him flat on his back. "Attim-san," Shinji slipped but Attim didn't correct him, "a-after this…can we…maybe…if its not to much trouble…"

Holding up her hand, Attim's attention turned sharply to the sudden appearance of the exit materializing before them. "That always startles me, sorry about that." How such hi-tech existed was beyond the enhanced human's capacity for comprehension, but Washu had it. Stepping through the door back into the interior of the barracks, Attim sighed quietly. "You were saying Shinji?"

Taking Attim's extended hand, her long and fine fingers were warm in Shinji's hand and so much softer than he expected, Shinji was pulled through the temporal rift. "I was…going to ask that…if in the future…you and I might…" Drawing up all his courage, Shinji readied himself to ask if maybe Attim might go out to eat with him on occasion or something. "Check and see how my training is progressing?"

FAILURE! Mini Shinji's appeared around him in his head and laughed at him. But who was he kidding, Attim was so far out of his league it was as if she was in another galaxy.

"Sure thing, kid. Now wait here a second, I'm going to go call Misato and have her send the elevator down to us and get a cup of coffee," Attim never could get the taste of tea. Give her a good hard shot of coffee and she was ready for the day. "Be right back," she said as she rounded into the offices by the entrance.

Giving Attim a nod, Shinji caught something out of the corner of his eye. "Sumomo, what are you doing here?" It wasn't just Sumomo but Kotoko as well. His mini computers were standing by the entrance. Kotoko was in power down mode, and Sumomo was dancing. "Did you wait for me?"

The pair of chibi-persocoms had been alternating in shifts to insure that whenever Shinji and Attim got out, they were informed of the changes instantly. One would recharge while the other watched, it was unfortunate that Sumomo was in charge when the time finally came. Missing Attim by being distracted with her morning exercises, Sumomo gave Shinji the message. "Shinji-sama! I have terrible news! Something has infected the water supply of the city and making everybody crazy! You have to get to Ritsuko's lab as soon as possible to switch it back."

Picking up Sumomo, Shinji tried to think of it as a joke, something Misato was pulling to welcome him back. "Don't kid around like that Sumomo, what is going on here?" But where was everybody else? When Attim and he first got to the barracks there were dozens of people milling about, now it was empty. Sliding Sumomo in his front pocket, he picked up Kotoko who was knocked out of screensaver mode.

"It's true! A contaminant has been found in the water and the populace has been placed in lock down in the shelters to prevent harm. You have to hurry and fix things." Sumomo's head bounced around frantically as she spoke.

Kotoko, at being awoke, heard Sumomo's story and continued to fill in the gaps. "Only the antidote has four more days to complete." Unlike Sumomo, Kotoko was taking her role very seriously and kept tabs on the city. "And due to a malfunction in the locking mechanism of one of the interconnected shelters opened the day after quarantine started. You'll have to be careful?"

"Shinji, I think something is going on here, there is a strange message on the television asking for all men to come to town hall," Attim said as she sipped on her freshly brewed coffee. "And it's strange as the words are written on a picture of that Ayanami girl." Who was glad in only a white teddy and an impish grin. "I think something happened while we were…were in…I feel strange."

Relaying Kotoko and Sumomo's warning to Attim, Shinji felt Goosebumps working down his spin. "What do we do?" Shinji didn't get an answer. He saw Attim throw her cup of coffee at the wall and run off at such speeds that Shinji couldn't follow.

Attim added up what was happening and ran. She was contaminated by her coffee and so quickly too! Whatever it was going to do to her, she sure as hell wasn't going to let it happen around Shinji. When she finally reached the town proper a group of women wearing red armbands nodded and smiled. Another follower of the Red sect was found.

Ritsuko had been wrong, the serum was having more affect than she anticipated. The women weren't mindless, but they were altered. Books and television shows seen in the shelter triggered the infection leaving the women with one need…one drive…and that was find a man. Ritsuko and Misato as leaders of the Red Sect told them where they could find one, the info leaked to their enemies and at that very moment they were all converging.

X- MGS – Metal Gear Shinji! Tactical Espionage Action! –X

Author Notes

SO begins Shinji Vs Tokyo-3!

This idea has been kicking around in my head for a few years actually. Finally going to get it into written form. Yeah its cheesy, but then again so is most of this story. It's a big collection of ideas that aren't big enough for a full story so…I hope you enjoy!!

Ja Mata

Zentrodie (zentrodie-dot-geo-at-yahoo-dot-com)


	32. Operation Shinji Eater begins

Standard Disclaimer

As I near the completion of my novel I find myself nervous and procrastinating, which is good for you cause that means I write more fanfiction ^_^. Anyway the rotation has this story up followed, maybe, by Understanding. Well anyway lets get this party started

X-X

What We Make of It

Chapter 32 – It's only for a few days

Or

How to shoot darts and influence people

Standing still as the door through which Attim had just run banged closed, Shinji was horrified. "S-so I have to get to Ritsuko-san's laboratory, right?" he asked as he readjusted Sumomo and Kotoko in his front pocket. It was just too surreal though, coming out of his training to find the city had been besieged while he was away. "And what happened to the people?"

Covering Sumomo's mouth to prevent the spastic machine from taking, Kotoko cleared her throat which also made her head bells jingle. "That is correct Ikari-sama, you must get to the crazed woman's lab." On Kos-Mos's programming all references to Ritsuko was overlaid with 'mad scientist'. Clenching Sumomo's mouth harder as the pink nightmare fought against her, "As for the escaped women, it is unknown what has happened to them."

Grabbing Kotoko's head, Sumomo slammed it against Shinji's chest to free herself. "We were here since the start to deliver the message to you. Kotoko paid as much attention to the city as she could, but it went crazy really fast." Her head bouncing around like a rubber ball, Sumomo couldn't have appeared less concerned. "You'd probably best avoid them as much as possible while you get over there."

Setting his bag down, Shinji pulled out his present from Attim far sooner than he'd thought he would have needed to. "Will I be able to hold up there for four days though?" If he could stay undetected it would be easy. Just hide from whoever went into the lab, ride out the time and administer whatever cure he needed to. Loading up his armaments, only one hundred rounds per arm, Shinji then strapped them on. "And what about Sasami and Asuka, they're not human so shouldn't they be safe?"

Grabbing onto Shinji's shirt as he stood and started walking, Kotoko ran several calculations in her tiny supercomputer brain. "All reports state that the agent attacks the chromosomes which are universally XX for females. So on note, even though Kos-Mos-sama, the demon, and the snob are all equally able to be infected." Kos-Mos was very thorough when she programmed Kotoko. Catching sight of the television in the rec-room, "Ikari-sama, that is what Attim mentioned, maybe the television can help."

A cold chill worked down Shinji's spine as he followed Kotoko's instructions. While he might be able to handle normal people, entities like Asuka would be more likely to catch and beat him. "Guess I'll be getting a practical test of my sneaking skills early." Pushing the door open further, Shinji wandered over to the television. It didn't have any sound, and appeared to be a camera focused on a photograph with words scrawled on it. "I didn't know Ayanami-chan could look so…" he had to swallow hard.

The photo in question was one of Ayanami Rei after hitting some of Misato's hentai manga, and in full on seduction mode. Clad in stolen white lingerie, her finger daintily in her mouth as her other hand cupped her own breast, her head thrown back, and back arched out, she gazed wantonly at the camera. The words were simple, 'All men are required to come to the town center to submit to the white sect for mandatory lovemaking.'

"Is Ayanami a whore, Shinji-sama?" Sumomo asked happily. Any woman that was on television demanding all men show up for sex had to either be really needing money or chemically unbalanced. Being slightly insane, Sumomo was more to believe it to be the former rather than the latter. "And how did she get that picture on television, they have regulations right?"

A small crash from outside the room made Shinji's heart jump. "Sssh, you two better lower your volumes please. And no Sumomo, Ayanami-san isn't a person like that, it must have something to do with whatever she's exposed to." Sneaking to a large cabinet, Shinji crawled into it and shut the door to all but a crack. He could hear something clattering down the hallway. "I think somebody is coming, be quiet."

Taking the initiative, Kotoko hacked into Sumomo's memory core and deactivated her maddening counterpart's speech algorithm. "I will speak for Sumomo and myself for now, she will communicate to me via wireless feed. Be careful Ikari-sama." Kotoko pulled Sumomo deep into Shinji's pocket in case the boy had to move fast. Falling out of their safe place would be disastrous.

Shinji held his breath as the door was smashed open, metal fragments erupted everywhere and smashed through the television. Skittering back, he covered his mouth to keep from altering whoever was demonstrating such power. A strange woman walked in, she had a red checked skirt on that was so short he actually saw the girls white panties, a white undershirt and a tight fitting yellow top. The blond hair was frazzled, unkempt, and went down to her back. What worried Shinji was the red gloves, fighters gloves she was wearing, and the green armband on her left arm. While she exuded power and fear, the odd look on her face was one that also hinted that she wasn't the brightest coin in the fountain.

"I should have had Shimei come with me," Hakufu huffed and ran her finger to her magatama. She wasn't suited for subtle missions or search and retrieval. Though not many of the green sect were, they were fighters of Kanto damn it, not spies. "We should just let one of the weak sects find this boy and break them all and take him." Such a fight would be truly a test of her mettle, and the prize for winning would… "Better focus or I'll need to change my cloths." Hakufu was still herself in regards to her unhealthy interest in fights only now the whole 'man' thing was the end goal and not being named Ikkitosen.

Listening to every word the blond said, Shinji was trying to put the pieces together. _Apparently different sects are forming in the city. Ayanami mentioned the white sect and this woman has a green band so maybe she's in the green? _Following Hakafu's movements as she walked deeper into the room, and unfortunately towards him, he tried to move as little as possible. Whispering, "Kotoko can you tell me anything about her?"

Accessing the Tokyo-3 databases faster than Asuka could burn sinners into charred ash, Kotoko was referencing the name 'Shinmei'. It was a short list, as everybody involved with the Kanto region fights had a police record with physical description. "Name: Hakufu Sonsaku, record: forty five counts of fighting in public. Psychological profile hints at sexual attraction to unfavorable combat situations. Likes: Long walks on the beach, long battles to the death, Dislikes: losing."

That chill that Shinji felt earlier was back and it brought friends. His legs gave out under him and he fell back into his hiding place. His first opponent, and he prayed only, was a damn super fighter!? A very attractive one yes but somebody that could easily snap him into tiny fragments, wasn't what Shinji had in mind when Attim trained him. His fall however hadn't been quiet, and as he winced he saw this Hakufu girl twirl and eye the door.

"Oh ho! Are you hiding from me, wanting to launch a surprise attack on poor defenseless Hakufu?" she jeered as she sauntered over. Ever since being freed from the confines of the shelter, she just had the overwhelming urge to find a man and break his spine with her body. It was a new form of martial art, consensual love-combat, and she was all about mastering new forms. Opening the cabinet she saw her target, and licked her lips, "So you are here, the Reds intel was right. Care for a little go before I take you back?" she asked dropping into a ready position her fingers flexing.

Recognizing the stance, Shinji was glad Attim hadn't gone easy on him during his training. The girl was ready to attack him, and if he lost heaven knew what would happen to him. His life being turned into the plaything of the Kanto girls whims was what awaited him for failure. _Remember what Attim said, it's about being quick, decisive, and unreadable. _Launching to his feet and ramming Hakufu in the stomach before she could react, Shinji didn't miss the oddly pleasure filled grunt.

Being bowled over by her target's sudden attack, Hakufu was happy that the boy wasn't a coward. The pain mixed with the pleasure of a good fight and her libido increased. "Not a bad move, but I won't be some easy victory for you." Regaining her footing, she fired off a one to combo that caught Shinji in the chest and arm sending him bouncing off the wall. Seeing him still awake from blows that most normal people were knocked out with, Hakuku's excitement peeked, "Going to lose my virginity today, and this is excellent foreplay."

Wiping the trickle of blood that was dribbling down his chin, Shinji saw his armlets and remembered. "Sorry Hakufu-san, but I can't allow that." Firing two rounds at the woman, knowing she'd deflect the first, Shinji wasn't disappointed. Just as he expected her fist caught the first dart, only to have the second penetrate her chest and in a fraction of a second she was out. After she was on the ground, Shinji rolled her over to keep her from being in pain when she woke and made a hasty exit.

X- And that's just going to make the Greens more anxious to get him –X

"We've gotten reports that the Green's are on a full fledged attack on the barracks," Maya reported to her superiors. "Apparently there scout was found unconscious and now they think the target is on the move." While the reds had technology the greens were far better in close quarters combat. "So far Shion's locator hasn't been working."

Hiding her face behind her folded hands, Misato's glasses reflected the light from her labyrinthine office. Gendo wasn't using it so the leader of the Red's took it as her own. "Any word on the effort to break into the men's shelters?" she asked as she turned to her number two.

Ritsuko adjusted her glasses, and frowned. "The shelters were designed to resist a N2-mine bombardment. All we managed to do was break the timing mechanism they won't open until a serum is administered to the city water supply." And thanks to the changes in there body chemistry the women didn't want it administered, the drive for self pleasure and enjoyment overrode there want to be freed of its effects. "So our only hope is Shinji as all parties heading to the town limits were met with a military blockade."

"Run little rabbit, run," Misato quipped and smiled. "As long as we get him first it won't matter. If the whites get him it will be easy to steal him back. The grey and green however," Misato shook her head. "They'd kill him before we got a chance to have a go, and I will not let that happen!" An odd mix of her actual feelings and the modified biochemistry made Misato obsessed with capturing Shinji. "Reports from Attim?"

Maya flipped through several pages of her report, "Ah, Miss M-Zak has finished her indoctrination process and is organizing the strike teams." Maya didn't want to admit her personal fear of what Attim had become, so she stayed quiet about the maniacal way Attim threw herself into her training. "She said it will take the rest of today to ready the suppression forces for the attack on the Grey's."

"Is that wise, Misato? Attacking the Grey's?" Ritsuko's tone didn't show it, but fear was evident. How could it not be when the Grey's, while the smallest of the city's formal factions, they were the most powerful. Demons, angels, and all manner of inhuman creations made up the Grey's, and while not all of them actually worked together they were lumped in the same category due to their over powered nature. "Shouldn't we work more on the Whites? They are just school girls for the most part."

Turning to her trusty number-two, who would be Shinji's number two if Misato got her way, Misato's smile was sinister. "I have plans for them already, its all in the scenario." Spinning back to Maya she asked, "Any news on Kos-Mos? If we could find her and get her to join us, maybe we can convert more Grey's to our side." The more Grey's the more power Misato would have and she'd be reunited with her lost Shinji.

Scratching at her nose, Maya hated being the messenger, because the messenger was usually shot for bad news. "No, the last team sent to find her found her fighting a group of five Whites in school girl uniforms." The sailor senshi maintained their grudge against Kos-Mos to this day. "And before contact could be made, Kos-Mos escaped into the destruction she wrought."

"Ayanami is clever, Misato, she likely is trying the same thing as we are," Ritsuko's animosity towards Rei was clear as ever. "So I repeat we should strike the Whites while we can." The second-in command uniform, modified for Ritsuko's form, suited her perfectly. "With Ayanami taken out, the rest of them will fall under your control. You know what they say about an organization without a leader."

Shaking her head, Misato lowered her hands, "The Whites are going to be our surprise weapon against the Greens. I planted a mole in their midst, and when I give the signal we'll see some real distractions between them. Don't overstep yourself, sensei, this is my scenario and it will go according to my plan." Opening her drawer, Misato pulled out Gendo's private stock of bourbon and poured herself a glass, "Keep me informed and have guards posted outside Ritsuko's lab. We can't have anybody risk administering the virus that would rob us of this newfound freedom."

With two salutes, both Ritsuko and Maya headed off to follow their leaders will, and they were happy to do it. Just as Gendo had done, Misato promised a ride on the Shinji-express to all those loyal to her to keep them going. And being the only male they could get a hold of, Shinji's stock was set to infinite.

X- Misato as Gendo, oddly fitting – X

It was slow going, but with Kotoko relaying directions to him, Shinji was making decent progress through the maze that was Nerv. "How many are at the elevator?" he asked. Hiding in an unused office, Shinji had stashed the body of one of the patrols. Sneaking through the building was harder than he thought it would be. He had to be careful of everything. Nothing could be disturbed, no trace of his passage could be left, and everything that hinted at his existence would bring the wrath of god on his head.

Sumomo pounded on her mini-tambourine twice since she still couldn't talk yet still wanted to help. Kotoko's hair flayed out and her eyes bugged in shock as the loud sound reverberated in the empty room. Almost the moment Sumomo put her hands down, they trio could hear the effect from the elevator's guards. A muffled, "I think it came from in this room, Akagi-sempai was correct that the man might be on his way here. Lets go check!" the excitement in their voices was evident.

_Shit shit shit! I need a place to hide!_ Shinji thought as he panned around the room. It was just like Misato's office so all it had was a desk and a file cabinet. Running around the desk he hid under the heavy oaken construction. "Sumomo, I thank you for wanting to help, but please stay quiet!" he hissed through clenched teeth. Cringing when the door opened and the light turned on, Shinji readied his attack.

Kurumi Muzino, siding with the Red's and not her daughter Ami's faction, wasn't really suited for combat, but if you didn't serve you didn't get served. "I just knew when my daughter brought that delicious boy over that I'd have to have a go." Kurumi said to her partner an equally wanting Kyoshi Nakamura, Shinji's personal nurse, as the pair examined the room.

"Well unlike you I have detailed knowledge of the goods, having given him a bath before," And Kyoshi wasn't worried about him failing. "But why would he be coming here? Reports say he's avoiding capture, so why go into the lions den?" Not that they minded the insane stunt he was playing it, it would only hasten his capture. Pulling her stun baton out of its waist holster, "Remember to keep it set to max, we have to knock him our or he might try and escape."

Mimicking her assistant, Kurumi pulled out her baton and gave the head a kiss, "We only hurt to be kind." Flipping the switch the baton sizzled with electric current. "Once we get him, how about we execute the prime directive ourselves, rather than handing him over to our leader to do it?" Having to hand the only man over to Misato before sampling the goods seemed unfair, shouldn't the spoils go to the victor? Unknowing the top to buttons of her Nerv sanctioned vest, she noticed Kyoshi eyeing her.

"What exactly are you doing Mizuno-sensei?" Kyoshi's eye brow arched as she questioned her leader. While the idea was tempting, insanely so, Kyoshi wouldn't want to go second, she wouldn't want to wait. So if Shinji was there, she raised her baton as she knew what she'd have to do.

Slowly walking around towards the back of the desk, "Well if I have to seduce him to relax his guard or keep him unhinged I figured this would be be…" Kurumi stopped mid-sentence a she saw Shinj's leg and followed it up to the rest of him. "Oh so you are here," she turned off her intercom. "Kyoshi, we found our litter intruder, and I think we nee GAH!"

Shinji pulled his legs in close as the charming body of Kurumi slumped to the ground with a trickle of drool coming out of her mouth, a smoking spot evident on her back. "What the…" Shinji muttered as Kyoshi stepped over her fallen mentor and holstered her baton. "What are you doing?" he could see Kurumi breathing so she wasn't dead, a load off his mind, but what was going on here. Were they going to kill him?

Not wanting to broadcast the victory yet, Kyoshi was going to sample the goods before turning him over. "Now now, no worries, I just wanted to right to execute the directive first." The directive being mating, but it was listed to refer to it as 'prime directive' lest Shinji hear and run. Misato knew her target far better than most. "Come out from under there or…do you want me to come in after you." She wiggled as she lowered herself giving the prone boy ample view of her shapely behind and chest.

One second later, the dart was fired and the betrayer was unconscious right next to her betrayed. "What were they going to do to me, why did Kyoshi knock out Kurumi-san?" Shinji asked his robotic companions. Taking Kurumi's stun wand and holster, Shinji straightened the pair out and lined them up behind the desk so the casual observer wouldn't see them.

Overriding the hack, Sumomo chimed in happily, "Take the communicator so we can spy on them!" She danced on Kyoshi's head as Kotoko freed the radio and mic from the dreaming woman. "And either they want to kill you or make babies!" Sumomo said in a manner of fact tone, to her what else could 'prime directive mean.' Climbing back into Shinji's pocket as he slid the ear piece in, "Either they want all men dead or they've been turned into sex crazed maniacs and you're the only outlet they have."

"Sumomo you're talking silly!" Kotoko yelled. "We saw the report that the infection is making women crazy. It must be the former, as the later is just too preposterous." Kotoko synced Shinji's head set up and deactivated the microphone. "We can see they are capable of thought, but are focusing on finding the last man. They are obviously trying to create a female only society. Ikari-sama is the last free man and they want to make an example of him." Everything that hinted at erotica was simply to draw any other hidden men out.

His jaw hanging fairly low, around his chest, Shinji tried to put the idea of a whole city full of maniacs who only wanted to kill him as far away in his mind as possible. "I think I can hear something, enhance the frequency Kotoko-san," Shinji pushed the bud deeper into his ear as the static cleared. "Ok…they're asking for a status report from all sections. Apparently they found one of the lady's I knocked out two floors above."

"Bing-Bong bing-bong!" Sumomo cried out happily. "They found that out twenty minutes ago, the new leader of Nerv is increasing patrols." Dodging under Kotoko's fist, Sumomo wasn't to blame as it was Kotoko who was to preoccupied to notice. "The elevator should take us to the lab, Shinji-sama should hurry."

With one last look at Kyoshi, his resolve to save her from whatever agent infected her was bolstered. She had done nothing but good things for him, sure she teased him with the whole sponge bath notion, but she was a good person. Kurumi, well Shinji didn't know her to well having only met her at the Ami's and the Halloween party, but she seemed nice enough. "I just have to hold out long enough," he picked up the stray baton, turned it on and tossed it in a garbage can. "That should eventually get a smoke alarm to go off giving us more time."

Kotoko deactivated the security cameras on their floor and the above and below to mask there movements and the trio headed for the elevator. Finding no further guards, Shinji hit the recall button and pressed against the wall as he waited. Kotoko kept tabs on radio communications about the black-out, apparently Ritsuko was getting wise to the ruse. Sumomo danced her happy dance to keep the morale high. When the elevator dinged, Shinji turned to the opening doors, and paled when Maya was standing there when it opened, the genius with an apparent toddlers like mind sent everything straight down to hell.

Before Shinji could react, Maya was on her communicator, "Target sighted, repeat target sighted on subbasement 4 at the elevator to the lab send ba…" Maya was cut off as the dart jabbed into her neck. Her body fell back and her head bounced off the support beam in the carriage. Alarm klaxons started going off immediately, the security teams were being dispatched.

Rushing into the elevator, Shinji hit the down button and dropped to his knees. "This is terrible she's got a bad head wound!" He carefully prodded the sickly sweet girl's head and pulled back a bloody hand. "Can you two tell how bad it is?" he asked as he dropped his bag to the ground and pulled out one of spare shirts. Tearing it into sections he made a makeshift bandage and tended the seeping injury as best he could.

"The wound itself isn't a problem, it's the blood loss that is the concern," Kotoko informed. Watching as Shinji worked, the tiny computer was painfully aware of her small size. With nothing she could do she pulled the torn fragments of cloth and prepared them for Shinji. Picking up more radio chatter, "We need to hurry, two squadrons have been sent out after us. And another three have been routed to the lab."

Wiping the sweat off his brow, Shinji cursed, "Damn it, there is no way to get in with that many. What options do we have?" His plan, as simple as it was, was burning around him. Maya wasn't in any danger now, whoever came after him would find her and tend to the rest. "What is the status of," Shinji was cut off as the elevator powered down, "their countermeasures," he finished.

Sumomo jacked into the elevator and used her back-up power to get the elevator doors open. "We're on a floor with an emergency exit, Shinji-sama needs to get out of here until it calms down." Sumomo lazily said as her power down algorithm kicked in. "Night-night."

"Sumomo-san is right, Ikari-sama," Kotoko smiled sadly at her sleeping friend on the ground. "We need to leave her here as well, as she'll need either Kos-Mos-sama or Uzuki-kun to repair the overload damage." A valiant sacrifice and it was times like this that made Kotoko respect her crazed companion. "The exit is hidden in the men's changing room, password protected, but I should be able to hack it."

With the clattering of feet coming from a nearby stairwell, Shinji didn't have time to argue. Following Kotoko's instructions he made his way to Gendo Ikari's private bathroom, littered with porn and smelling very bad, Shinji found the keypad for the emergency exit. "Are you sure this is a good idea, maybe if I shake them I can still get into the lab."

Plugging herself into the outlet to gain access to the safety protocol, Kotoko shook her head negative. "With four days needed before the vaccine is created, you would run out of ammo before that time has elapsed." If she could sweat, Kotoko would be covered with it as she exerted more force against the encryption. "You will have to sneak back in after the time has ended so you can administer it without fear of what happens after." Seeing Shinji nervously looking at the door, every so often his body would jerk towards the entrance. "No worries, Ibuki-kun has been found and the patrols are checking air vents for you, I hacked a camera to show you running down a different corridor."

Letting out a large sigh, Shinji couldn't tell how good that made him feel. "I guess the idea of staying hidden in here for days with them knowing I'm here wasn't such a good idea." But at the time it sounded plausible. Hearing a sizzle and a whoosh as a wall opened and showed him his exit, Shinji saw Kotoko and his stomach dropped. "Kotoko-chan!"

Her vision going dark as her power was rerouted to protect vital areas, "My mistake. A back-door Trojan was in place for brute force hacking. Door opened but I will not be able to continue my assistance to you. B-b-be sa-saaa-sssaafffff-eee S-h-," her voice distorted and went silent as the tiny machine shut down to allow repairs.

Picking up Kotoko, Shinji strangely found himself hugging the computer and laying it in a pile of unused tissue paper. Entering the escape tunnel, he shut the door and started running. He had to survive, he had to keep hidden, or both Sumomo and Kotoko's sacrifices would be in vain. The tunnel exited in a back-alley in the red-light district of Tokyo-3, Gendo's favorite spot where the porn was cheap and the stripe clubs didn't know his face.

It was only noon on day one, and already Shinji was alone.

X- Its more dramatic that way – X

"Ma'am you sent for me?" Hikari Hokari announced her arrival in Rei's quarters, what once was the classroom that she was class representative of. Being a normal girl, Hikari knew she'd never be able to score the prize alone. Joining with her comrades, she was under Rei's control as a member of the White sect.

Putting down her copy of Death Note, to which she identified with Light Yagami, Rei was making plans within plans to reach her goal. "Excellent Hokari, what do you have to say about the news broadcasts that we set up. Hoshino had a terrible time setting it up." A talented girl yet, but Rei was in command and as such Rei was aiming for her beloved.

"About that Ma'am, four additional men were coaxed out of hiding," Hikari hadn't been there to witness it, but the battered and bruised women that returned told the tale. "Apparently yesterday morning they were found wandering in confused, before we could apprehend them we were attacked." No fatalities, but a lot of girls were hurt and were in the nurse's office being tended to.

Walking from the front of the room to the back, Rei watched out the window. "Was Ikari-kun in their numbers? I assume it was those Amazonian Greens." A painful thorn in Rei's side, they were. She couldn't reason with them, they only acknowledged strength and fighting prowess. Her mole was having a hard time getting communiqués out, but Shampoo was doing her best.

Hikari's voice was unsteady and broken, Rei had exiled her previous messenger for telling of how they missed the barracks opening. Chiyo had been sent out to fend for herself and the teenage genius was making her own plans now. "Ayanami, we can't be certain of who they got, but we do know that…that the four men are d-dead." Taking a step back as Rei threw a book at the wall and stomped her foot. "They were um…one of the Green factions staged a co'op to try and overtake power and the men and in the resulting fight they were….we-we don't know if Shinji was there."

"He wasn't, but that just lowers are available stock. I would know if Shinji were dead," Rei said calmly. But the loss of the other men meant Rei would have to share more, and she truly wanted the last man, her Shinji, to herself. "Has Ami said anything about what was going on up at the shrine? Reports stated a man was seen up there."

"Morisato Keiichi was identified as being up at the old shrine, but we cannot get to him," Hikari took a deep breath. She had fancied Shinji over the other possible men, he would suit her better. "A Grey is protecting him, and we have no way of getting past her without the help of more Grey's."

Belldandy wasn't going to share her man with anybody, and oddly enough her attitude hadn't changed even after drinking the water. Keiichi was wondering if celibacy hadn't been the way to go after all as Bell was draining him.

Hikari continued with her mid-morning report, "According to Tsukino and Hino, Kos-Mos is still at large and without side. They said she fought them and flew off. What are we going to do?" Her body was pins and needles, Hikari joined the Whites because Rei assured them that she had access to a man, when many heard it was Shinji they instantly sided with Rei. Now though, Shinji had eluded them and with that the stability of the Whites was in question.

Gathering her possessions, Rei smiled thinly at Hikari. "For starters, we find Sasami and that pet of hers. With them on our side we can scour the city for my beloved faster." Walking out the door and into the hallway, several other schoolmates fell in line behind there illustrious leader. "We do what we due best, use our brains to outthink our foes and get Shinji-kun. We know he escaped Nerv, and unlike the Red's and Green's I know where the escape hatch empties out."

Rei wrote down her orders to her subordinates, but refused to speak them aloud. Spies where everywhere and she wasn't going to make it easy for them. "Keep in contact with each other, and avoid the Green's as much as possible. If you know a Grey do all in your power to convert them to our side. Either they will get him and share or help us to do so." As she spoke her lieutenants, all skilled in various arts vanished in search of the only person who could fill the insatiable urge in them. "Hokari, any word from Asuka, she was a friend of yours?"

Her had dropped, "Asuka hasn't been sighted since the fight with Morrigan and Hild. All three of them have yet to resurface." The damage the gymnasium sustained had forced Rei's forces to abandon it. "Morale has dropped due to the failure today at the barracks. But at least we have confidence that nobody else has succeeded yet." Hikari was downtrodden after her friend's disappearance. She had so hoped to bask in the splendors of victory with Asuka.

Leaving the school grounds, Rei headed straight towards her apartment complex with Hikari in tow. Situated right in the middle of the red district, Rei fully expected Shinji to make his first base of operations her apartment. Being mostly vacant, it would make a perfect hiding place. But Rei knew this, and knew Shinji. "Failure is not an option, we must have him. I will not let somebody else take what is MINE."

Running off to abide by Rei's actions, Hikari wasn't enjoying what she was hearing. Rei wasn't sounding exactly like the sharing type right now. Rounding the corner towards the shopping arcade, where Rei insisted Shinji was going to be, Hikari bounced off a certain princess from hell. "A-Asuka is that you?"

Eyes full black, her powers totally out of control due to desire, Asuka sniffed the air. "Not here…not here…" she murmured as she twisted her head back and forth. Her leathery black wings flapped hard and ruffled Hikari's hair. "Vassal, where are you," she snorted and took off flying again. Her mind totally succumb to the siren call of her heart. Demons in love, something not supposed to happen, and mixing with the drug in her body made Asuka a single purposed machine. Fine Shinji and enter a world of carnal delight.

On the top of a skyscraper Hild and Morrigan stood side by side. "This isn't what I expected to find when I got back, Morrigan," Hild said angrily. She had taken a minor vacation to educate Morrigan on what she could and could not do with Shinji. Hild accepted the changed Morrigan and her affection, but limits had to be put in place. "Asuka is exuding such power that I cannot find my son. Morrigan you better find him before they do."

Following the fire trail that Asuka left behind, Morrigan's heart beat hard and fast she said, "I can feel him, but it's faint. Only a vague direction. There is such power unleashed right now that everything, even our connection, is overshadowed." With a nod, Hild and Morrigan joined the fray having yet to be contaminated they had hope to find and protect.

X – Many sides vie for the goal – X

Author notes

And so it begins in earnest.

Whites – School girls - sans the martial arts masters and skilled fighters

Reds – Adults

Greens – The 'not normal' school girls

Greys – Supernatural creatures under the influence

Others – Splinter factions and solo seekers

Can you tell this is heavily influenced by games and silliness? Oh well WW has never taken itself seriously and that's what makes it fun to write/read. Hope you enjoy

Ja Mata

Zentrodie


	33. Alert phase 3

Standard Disclaimer

RAGE!!! I wanna hit up Understanding, I feel I'm neglecting that poor story! But here I am writing this cause I want to make sure I get something done this weekend. As next I won't be writing due to ACEN. Yes my triumphant return to one of the geek holy lands. Anyway hope you enjoy this…man this story is just going on forever.

X-X

What We Make of It

Chapter 33 – Increasing Danger

Or

Grey Matter

His stomach ached, but Shinji didn't pay it much mind. Moving from trash bin to alley and whatever cover he could find, the boy made his way deeper into the red light district. Twenty minutes after her emerged from the escape tunnel from Nerv, he was amazed at how the city had changed. It was a ghost town for the most part, roving patrols of women occasionally drove or walked down the street looking for him, some wore red while others white with the very rare colorless girl making an appearance.

"This is going to be a lot harder than I thought it would be," he whispered as he pushed the purloined earpiece in closer. It didn't always work now, but he could pick up the occasional stray broadcast. Normally those were troop movements and that helped him plan his movement greatly. It was the stray comments about the eagerness of the women to 'carry out the prime directive' that made Shinji worried. "I wish I still had Sumomo and Kotoko with me, being alone…I don't like it."

Ducking into an abandoned gas station as a trio of his classmates walked by, Shinji thought he saw Usagi in the mix. Pulling out his wallet he dropped several bills by the register and opened a breakfast bar. Having been moving since waking, Shinji's body was screaming for sustenance. "I can't believe so much has happened today," he mused. His happy reunion with his friends took a rather unique turn.

His plan now was to get to Ayanami's apartment and hole up there for the duration of the time needed for the cure to be created. "With her at the television station her place should be empty," he nodded to his logic as he bit deeply into his food. Grabbing a bottle of tea he chugged it as he counted his remaining ammo. He'd only had to fire at one woman, but missed her three times before hitting her in the calf.

"Keep talking to myself, what would they think if they saw me now," Shinji quipped as he dumped a box of toothpicks into his pack and the chemicals to make more tranquilizers. "It keeps me calm though, hearing a voice that isn't talking about killing me," he deposited more money at the counter and slid to the door. Checking right and left, he saw nobody and stepped out into the street.

It was so quiet now, even the droning machinery was silent, Shinji was thankful for that. It helped him to hear the approaching van. Diving into a dumpster, he watched as the commandeered political van slowly crept down the street and came to a stop right in front of him. Two girls got out both with red armbands, but he didn't recognize them. Straining to hear them all he got was, "Shion-sama's radar said that he was in this region, but why come here?" a non-descript blond asked to a dark blue haired woman.

Yurika Misumaru primped her hair and took several large steps in Shinji's direction. "I'm more to believe the new vice captain M-Zak. He's going into hiding, and he has one of our comm. links so he can hear our plans so we can't underestimate him. This would be the easiest place to hide in, but intel states the greens are on the move here." Adjusting her hat, Yurika could have sworn she saw the trash bin's lid move. "We need to get Ruri back from the whites, she'd be able to reverse hack the headset and we'd know exactly where he is."

Inez shrugged and got back into the van, "You have a point but she's taken a kinship to their leader so it's not going to happen." Ruri had been very direct about her want to serve under Rei, it saddened the female crew of Nerv's submarine 'Nadesico'. Listening to a report, "Yurika get in the car, Akagi-kun says they got a reading over at the shopping arcade that somebody broke in, and we're closest."

Her hand just a mere inch away from the lid, Shinji cowered inside but didn't move lest he give himself away, Yurika paused. "He would need food to survive us, maybe we should position guards at all such locations," Yurika pulled her hand back and headed to the van and the pair drove off.

Waiting several minutes for any back tracking to take place, Shinji got out of his impromptu hiding place a lot stinkier. "I'll need to clean myself or they'll smell me like Attim-san did," he realized after getting a good whiff of himself. The remainder of his trip to Rei's building was uneventful. The apartment building was exactly as he hoped it would be, quiet and seemingly empty. Pushing open the door to one of the units on the first floor, it was cleaner than Rei's had been merely because it was unoccupied.

Dropping his bag and the ear bud on the provided bed, Shinji's body was already covered in bruises and pain. "This is going to kill me if I have to keep up with it," he headed to the shower. Thankful that this unit was identical to Rei's, he knew the layout perfectly. "I should be safe here." Taking his cloths off but leaving the wrist armaments on, they were waterproof, he got into the shower to wash the stink off.

Rei tittered to herself as she watched her prey moving exactly as she expected him too. The shower wasn't part of her plan, but well within limits and a great show to boot. _He'll run the water light to keep the sound down, but it will be enough distraction, _she schemed. Planning steps in advance, Rei dropped a small tracking device created by the White's only grey, Skuld, into Shinji's pack. If he somehow got away from her, it wouldn't be for long. _I should have more of my followers with me, but I do not wish to share him. _She'd have to eventually lest she be overthrown, but she wanted first go.

Sneaking out of the room, her body burning not to, it was only her firm resolve that kept her from rushing the bathing Ikari. She'd wait for him to drop his guard further before making her move. She'd have to render him unconscious or wait for him to sleep or chance hurting him. Moving to the unit next to Shinji's she bore a whole in the wall to watch, unsuspecting that the 'rat' that scurried off was in reality Ryo-Oki.

X- Furry spaceships of doom shouldn't look so cute –X

"My head hurts," Hakufu announced as she was lead back into the fray of battle. "Our prize is a lot more scheming than I expected." Her ability to gauge attacks based on Chi hadn't worked on him, and that made the fighter all the more interested.

Shimei sighed and twirled her handcuffs around her finger, "That does pose a problem. You being taken out by him was most unexpected." Flipping through the dossier they beat out of a Red, Ryomou was as typical not playing around. "We tore that place apart after finding you but it seems he escaped. Both Red's and White's are roaming the city. The White's are focusing in the red light zone."

Flexing her fingers several times, Hakufu licked her lips and pulled her gloves in tighter. "Oh I can't wait to get my hands on him again, see what else he can surprise me with." A titillating idea, being unable to read him made the boy just that more desirable. "What else happened since I've been out?" she asked as they made there way to the street.

"Shampoo report to her white leader," Shampoo said announcing her arrival to the gang. "Blue hair still think Shampoo on her side," a double cross should have been expected, but Shampoo still wasn't sure which side she wanted to be part of. "They know Beloved's escape put him in dirty part of town."

Not fully trusting the Amazon, Shimei was tempted to call her out on it, but it wasn't time yet. "Everything looks like that, as for the four men we lost the other day when we betrayed, something interesting was found." Betrayal was par the course for the lovely ladies who vied for Ikki Tousen, but losing was never something they cared for.

Pulling her panties up higher, they had torn during her battle with Shinji, Hakufu hummed to herself. "They died, they were weak. If they couldn't handle that type of attack we'd have killed them when we took them." Said women weren't being condescending just truthful, being as powerful as they were.

"No bodies were recovered from the wreckage, something took them away, we assumed they died," Shimei cut Hakufu off. _Katsuragi's device proved it was teleportation, but that would mean a Grey was involved. _Misato's mole was bought at a high price, two days solo ownership of the man, and Shimei wanted to try out more of her submission moves on him after learning of Hakufu's defeat.

Being more intelligent that the illustrious brain dead Hakufu, Shampoo was able to grasp what was being said. "Men were stolen by Grey! We need to break Grey or get Grey or they wipe us out." But godlike entities weren't simple opponents even for the reincarnation of the Three Kingdoms era. "Grey at Buddhist temple took down combined offensive, man was screaming."

Not caring about the statistics, Hakufu just shook her head, "No matter, to the red light we go. Shimei get the girls, we're on the offensive." They'd wait for one of the rivals to score a victory and snatch it away. The girls all nodded and felt out along the dragon lines, Shinji's chi was flaring, something was happening and it was definitely in the red light.

X- Those girls are scary –X

A cold shower never felt so good as it did right then, Shinji came to understand. Putting his cloths back on he retired to the dusty bedroom. "It must be about three by now, guess I can make some ammo," he shrugged and pulled out the materials for his darts. With nothing planned but hiding at the apartment for a few days it left Shinji a lot of potential alone time.

Exhausting the box of toothpicks he reloaded and let out a yawn. It had only been a little while, but being on constant alert drained him. Sliding the tiny wood dresser in front of the door, more to wake him up than keep anybody out, Shinji laid down and let out a ragged sigh. "I just want this to be over, and over soon." But the minimum time was still three and a half days. Closing his eyes, Shinji wouldn't let the fear of being torn to tiny pieces by the women in his life change his mind about them. "I can't hurt them, I just can't."

From her vantage point, Rei was dizzy with anticipation. She had her rope and chloroform ready. _Bind his arms and legs, if he wakes knock him back out. _After the first few resistant times, Rei suspected Shinji would give in to bliss and then she'd just have to pretend she didn't find him. Let the others search in vein for him while she got to have her cake, eat it, and have it taste her as well. Once she was sure he was asleep, in a good deep sleep, she moved.

Living in the building gave Rei perfect knowledge of it, bypassing the door Shinji booby trapped, Rei went up a floor and climbed down the water pipes in the bathroom. They had little cover and were easy to descend. Stalking into the bedroom, Rei sat on the bed for a moment and just gazed longingly at Shinji. "I knew this day would come," she caressed his cheek and smiled. Taking the silk rope she pulled Shinji's arms to his chest, but stopped when she noticed his equipment.

"So that's how you did it, taking out a Green with these must have made you a near god to them," Rei was disgusted with the Greens. Fighting and screwing were all they were about now, and with only one man, if they got him, Rei would doubt Shinji would last long. "Can't take them off, must be something with DNA locks," Rei grunted as her attempts to disarm her prey failed. "No matter, just have to make sure you don't hit me until you're mine," she tittered and chastely kissed his cheek.

Binding his wrists together twisted hands so the barrels of the dart guns were close together making any shot more likely to hit Shinji himself than a target. "I'd never thought it would be this easy but…" Maybe it was her lucky day.

Then the door burst open in a menagerie of wood pulp and dust. Shinji jerked awake almost instantly and head butted Rei on accident. Dazed, Rei staggered up and away from the bed. The dust so thick it was impossible to see who had the audacity to spoil her moment of triumph. "What are you doing?" she raged aka talked at a normal level. Her answer was a fluffy assault to the face.

"Ryo-Oki had something interesting to tell me," Sasami said coolly as she sauntered into the room. "Seems somebody found something that doesn't belong to them," she joked. Sasami had been linking with the trees and plants, hastening her ascension into a goddess as Ryo-Oki performed her own little maneuvers. "I've come to take what is mine and leave this place," Earth was fun but flying in space and becoming one with her fiancé for a good decade or two was more fun sounding.

Pulling the cabbit off her face, Rei flung it behind her and onto Shinji who was seeing stars. "Sasami, I was hoping to find you and have you join us," Rei said truthfully. The Goddess of Nature would have made a great addition to her forces, but now it seemed their bond was more fragile than she suspected. "We had a connection once, we can again, just let me go first."

With each step, Sasami's body changed, it aged and grew to an adult form. Sasami's use of Tsunami's power had awakened the sleeping half of her soul. Tsunami wasn't about sharing, Tsunami was going to have her husband and Ryo-Oki and the three of them would take HER ship and head off to some dark corner of existence until the long sleeping goddess got her fill. "Sorry, Ayanami, you are right that we have a connection, I just rather have a more physical one with my betrothed."

His delirium cured by the scratching kisses of Ryo-Oki, the cabbit was female and just as affected as the others. Slowly and careful not to hurt the meowing starship, Shinji watched as a women hauntingly familiar but more breathtaking than anybody he'd ever seen walked towards Rei. "This is bad, where can I go…" he eyed the room looking for an escape route. The bathroom had a window, it was small but it might serve. Going to get up he went to reach for the nightstand and fell off the bed, just realizing his hands were tied.

To focused on the new being before her, Rei hadn't noticed Shinji's movements. "What did you do to Sasami? Your aura is too different to be the same," she demanded. Rei could still feel Sasami, but it was more robust a flavor now. "And I will not let him go without a fight," she got into a defensive stance, knowing it to be futile. Rei could feel the power emanating from the creature before her and it was far greater than even Shinji's new adopted mother.

Getting to his knees, Shinji crawled towards the bathroom door, Ryo-Oki on his back and nuzzling against his neck. As long as the two were preoccupied he had a chance, but if he alerted them it would all be over. _I can't believe I got found so fast! Who would have suspected I'd come here!? _But then seeing Rei's back, Shinji had his answer. It was odd how even though it might have meant his death, it warmed his heart to know she hadn't changed that much.

"Fighting me will only hurt you, Ayanami-san, and I do not want that. I only want that which is mine and which I belong to," Tsunami's hand went to her chest as her heart beat faster and hotter. "As for Sasami, she is I and I am she, we are one and we are two," surely everybody knew the tenants of soul mergers on the astral plane. Seeing Rei's totally uncomprehending expression, Tsunami gritted her teeth, it would be hard to explain. "Anyway, I will be taking him and be on our way. A large group of women are moving towards us and they will not take losing well." Tsunami's tree radar had picked up a big Green movement.

Taking a step forward, knowing she didn't stand a chance, "T-take me with you? I-I don't care as long as on occasion…" Rei's feelings combined with the drugs influence was making a rather dramatic mix. Another loud bump forced her to turn away from those soft pink eyes of her greatest female friend/rival. "S-Shinji?"

Trying to open the door with his face had proved more painful than helpful, and louder than he expected. "Oh….shit," he grunted as he heard his name called. Grabbing the handle he had to hope he had time, but, "I'll need a miracle to get out of here!" Opening the door, he heard the older woman cry out for him to stop, stepping in and slamming the door shut behind him, he had his miracle.

Rushing the door the moment it closed, Tsunami threw it open to find the room empty. "Washu," was all she said before walking away leaving an equally confused Rei.

X- Can't keep the crab loving scientist down –X

Coming to a complete halt, Morrigan's eyes shot open, "He's vanished!" She had Shinji pinpointed and was closing in on a dilapidated building when suddenly he just blinked away. "What could have made him do that?" she asked her companion, and equally afraid mother.

Hild was clenching her fist tightly now, this wasn't what she had in mind at all. She left to make sure her son's plaything was fully aware of its new station in life, and came back to find the city in shambles and her boy on the lamb. "I don't know but do you feel that? It's beyond…beyond even myself." And for the CEO of hell to admit something was more powerful than she was made others tremble. "We can't lose sight of the goal though."

Kos-Mos was what was leading them, sure Morrigan could slightly sense Shinji due to the bond they shared but with all the powers flaring in the city it masked much. Kos-Mos however was a blue eyes Shinji rocket. Taping into every form of technology and communication Kos-Mos triangulated Shinji's position to three nanometers. The semi-human was now floating in mid-air reassessing her

"We could try talking to her, she might be more willing to help knowing we only want to help him, not ravage him until he is so low on vitamin C that he'd absorb an orange just being next to it," Morrigan offered light heartedly. It was a thin covering for her fears, and Hild new it so said nothing. Morrigan knew the truth, if Kos-Mos knew she was nearby the damn thing would go into attack mode or fly off and they'd lose their lead.

Sending more of her demonic servants out to haunt for her daughter and son, Hild bit her thumb. "I'm all about my children basking in the joy of sex, I would just rather it not be forced by a whole city." Hild didn't mind if Shinji enjoyed a good session now or again, being a demon meant her parenting concerns were a bit off. "I'm more worried about why he vanished. Could his death…" she couldn't finish.

Closing her eyes, her tiny head wings flapping, Morrigan felt out for the familiar life force. Slowly, calmly, and ethereally she spoke, "High above us, a floating onsen, he's safe. Asuka feels him, she's on the move." It was draining to call out spiritually to Shinji, but with no other choice, Morrigan did what she had to. "I sensed something else," she opened her eyes, "another big one like at the apartment. What does it mean?"

A thunderous roar in front of them, followed by a streak of white flame alerted the pair that Kos-Mos was off again. Likely sensing the high tech haven above her, the android wasn't going to wait for anything. Her internal algorithm was a steady repeating line of 'Master-Master-Master' and her Christmas present was fueling the rest.

Splitting herself into a small army of Chibi versions of herself, Hild climbed up on Morrigan's shoulder with one. "I'm going to keep tabs on the world below as we follow her. No telling if he can escape from where he is, and if he does we need to be there." Asuka was the big fear now, the princess was a living flame and would burn all in her way to get what she wanted. "Now move before I withdraw my decision to give you visitation rights."

Rolling her eyes and snorting, Morrigan wasn't taking to being Hild's mount well, but knew her place. All that mattered was safely rescuing Shinji and finding out what happened. Unable to keep Kos-Mos's speed, Morrigan simply followed the vapor trails higher and higher into the ionosphere.

X- They could each destroy the planet a dozen times over – X

Laying on his back, Shinji stared up at the stars, which was odd as it wasn't night from what he could tell. "What just happened to me?" he asked aloud. One moment he is fleeing Rei and some strange woman that looked awfully familiar to Sasami, and the next he's in some strange lab. "Maybe I passed out."

"It's about time you actually knocked on a door, Ikari-kun," Washu said with a chuckle. Hammering away on her invisible keyboard, the petit force of destruction was busy at work. "I had my scanners waiting for your DNA to knock on just about ANY door in that city so I could teleport you here. It brought productivity down three percent." And for Washu's computers that was saying something.

Rolling to his feet and stumbling to the red menace, "Washu-chan, what's going on?" He'd question teleportation later, right now more important things were going on. "The city is crazy, Rei was on television in her bra and panties asking for men, then she was attacked by Sasami's mom, and…I'm being hunted…just what is going on?" his questions got more frantic and demanding as he went.

Sticking a sucker in the boy's mouth to both shut him up and feed him, it was a days worth of nutrition in a candy, Washu rubbed her fingers through her hair. "Well my assistant went and made a mess of things again." Ritsuko was in for it big time for leaking the pheromones into the city's water supply. "Your city is infected with a virus of sorts," hormones were a virus when they acted out.

Holding his arms out as Washu beckoned him, Shinji felt the pressure of the rope vanish. "Yeah, Kotoko told me it made people homicidal. That they want to make a female only society and they're going to kill me as the last free man." Whenever he heard that term, Shinji wanted to grab a crowbar for some reason. "But if you're not infected why don't you fix this. You're a genius so I'm sure you can make the cure that I was supposed to administer." Maybe things just got better.

Her grin was impish at the praise and her Washu-O's jumped out to chorus it, but life wasn't that easy. "While I am a genius, Ikari-kun, the problem isn't that easily solved." Her attention was focused solely on her monitor. "Keeping the women from getting contact outside of the city, teleporting men to the shelters when found, and containing this thing is a lot more complex than Akagi thought. Most of my time is spent on making sure nothing gets out about this little incident." Washu weighed the options of telling Shinji that if caught the women wouldn't kill him, they'd just ride him like a pony until his back broke.

His growing sense of hope dashed, Shinji let out a languished sigh. "What about the cure though? Couldn't you set up something to make it faster than Ritsuko's?" Three more days would be to long at this rate, but if he could just hide with Washu maybe it wouldn't be THAT bad. "And did you know Sasami's mother was here?"

"That wasn't Masaki, Shinji, that was Tsunami," Washu corrected the boy as her memories were all coming back. "And no, due to Akagi's stupidity the base she used is to limited in scope, I cannot make a vaccine unless I had the genuine article and I doubt any exists." Another two men were found in a bar and teleported to the shelter with the others. "But this place is impenetrable so you can just ride it out here, I have some sneaking suits I can give you for when you have to break back in."

His hunger dissipating as he sucked on the cherry flavored food stuff, Shinji smiled at that, "You're the greatest, Washu-chan! I was so worried about having to risk going back in. I'd do it, but dying at the hands of my friends doesn't seem like a good thing." Sitting on the ground, Shinji reached for his bag only to remember he'd left it behind, no extra ammo for him.

As much as she didn't want to, Washu had to inform her soon to be in-law about what he was really facing. "Let me see your arm," holding Shinji's hand at the wrist, she pulled a syringe out of hammer space and injected him. "They don't want to kill you, Shinji. But what they do want to do could and would likely cause it in the end."

Rubbing the injection point, Shinji was confused, "Then what do they want to do to me? And what did you stick me with?" Getting to his feet, Shinji was developing a very nasty chill. "It couldn't be what Sumomo said, right? I mean if every woman is a sex crazed maniac…what if somebody got pregnant or a disease!" The emotional toll would be worse after fixed, but Shinji didn't want to think that dark yet.

"Why do you think I'm teleporting all the men away, Shinji?" Washu said with a grim certainty. One woman gets an STD, she'd share it with everybody else like wildfire with so few men. She couldn't risk Sasami getting sick or hurt, and that was why she couldn't leave her lab. "And what I injected you with is a sterility drug coupled with the antibodies for every earth virus." And had the extra DNA altering pathogen that would allow Shinji to derive life force from Jurian trees like Sasami could, essentially increasing his lifespan into the eons. "If they get you, you'll have to try to escape, but this way at least you won't be at risk and nor will they."

Where many other men would have thought they'd just been handed a free ticket to bang anybody they ever wanted, Shinji felt repulsed. "I'll do whatever I can. I'd never forgive myself," he wouldn't violate his friends. "But staying here I won't have much to worry about right?"

Cackling madly, Washu threw her head back, "Nothing can get in here! You just have to ride out the few days with me…maybe be my little guinea pig now that all the other men are on lock down." That would be fun, maybe some good old fashioned procreation instead of just waiting for Sasami to crank out the super humans would be in order.

That's when the alarms sounded and the whole facility started to shake terribly. Washu fell from her floating perch, caught by Shinji, and the pair landed with a meaty thump. "What could have!?" Washu questioned aloud as a series of panels opened showing a very angry Princess of hell on one and a blue eyed demon in robot clothing pummeling her dome. "Son of a bitch!"

"That's Asuka and Kos-Mos, they can't get in can they?" Shinji asked as another violet shake rattled the building. Holding Washu protectively close to him, he had no idea what was happening. "I mean this place is strong enough to keep them out," he said with certainty as Asuka successfully broke through the shielded glass dome and Kos-Mos ripped off a vent and flew inside. Emergency klaxons sounded and Washu got to her feet and out of Shinji's lap.

Handing Shinji a watermelon and a cherry sucker, "Take these, Shinji, they'll keep you fed while your down there. This place isn't safe for you anymore." How the hell they found him, Washu cursed her self for forgetting. "Quick give me your earpiece," she grabbed the nub and worked on it feverously. "They're coming for you so after I send you back to Tokyo-3 they'll leave so don't worry about me."

Pocketing his food, Shinji waited with building anxiety, "You have to send me back to Tokyo-3 or they'll break free of your countermeasures won't they?" Shinji was getting a growing understanding of things. If the outside world found out that a whole city of women were walking sex bombs, they'd have no end of shady men trying to make a harem of their own. That couldn't happen, he wouldn't let it. "About that suit?"

Handing him back the modified ear piece, she offered him a sad smile, "No time, but I'll see what I can do for you after I fix things up here." Pulling up her console she opened another gate, "Go, it'll take you to your apartment, your old apartment, things look quiet there." Ruffling Shinji's hair, Washu was damn proud of the boy. He accepted things as they had to be, he was risking it all for a city that hardly cared he existed. Pushing him through the door as Kos-Mos erupted from the floor panel and Asuka scorched along the onsen, Washu wished him luck.

X- Kos-Mos along could have sunk that thing –X

Flying through the shattered dome, Hild and Morrigan surveyed the destruction. Computer panels were torn from walls, enclosures shattered, the onsens foliage was torn and uprooted and laid littered about. But there were no moans, no grunted, and no screaming of helpless victims. It was quiet save for the occasional crackle of electricity or roar of an escaped test subject.

"Whatever happened here I think we missed it," Morrigan said as she ducked under a low hanging cable. Helping her ruler navigate the destruction, Morrigan was happy no blood stains were evident. "I think they missed it too, I don't feel him anymore."

"That's because I got him out of here before those two over reaction girls could do anything," Washu muttered as she walked past the remains of one of her less important tests. No longer was she a child, Washu's body had reverted to its adult state. "I had teleport those needy little girls to opposite ends of the city before the tore this place to shreds."

Shaking off Morrigan's aid, Hild walked with the confidence only somebody that controlled an ethereal plain could. "Where did you send him, what did you do to him?" Somebody was competent, and Hild wanted answers about just what the hell was going on. "So you better start talking because I don't take threatened family members lightly." Pulling the red head close, Hild had to do a double take as she wasn't holding the scientist anymore but a life size doll replica.

"You need to calm down, hasty actions based on emotion often lead to more pain," Washu announced as she walked out from behind her terminal. "You can keep that doll if you want, just try to keep it clean." Pulling up her scanners, Washu keyed into Shinji's frequency before saying, "As for Sasami's fiancé, he's currently making his way towards Tokyo-3 municipal school. His apartment got raided by members of the red sect lead by Misato Katsuragi." At least Shinji got out without being seen, Washu was grateful.

Walking to the other side of the adult scientist, Morrigan was much as Hild was, not thinking straight. "Look, something strange is going on here and having a whole city full of wanting women is making us a little on edge. Add one insane princess and an android capable of blowing a whole in the planet, and the picture isn't rosy." If they had to, the pair had Washu in a pincer attack.

Coming to the understanding that her new guests were only a trifle more sane than the last, only for different reasons, Washu grunted. "I guess we have to do this the hard way, don't we," she leaned back as both demonic agents rushed forward at her. Holding out her hands, both women came to a sudden halt unable to move. "Bad children get a time out. Now if you behave yourself maybe I'll tell you what you want to know."

For the first time in her existence, Hild was literally afraid. Such a thing had never happened before, she was powerless before this woman. "W-what are you?" Hild didn't miss the shocked look on Morrigan's face, and didn't find fault with it. Until now Hild had been the woman in charge, the biggest, the baddest, the sexiest thing since sliced bread and here she was at the mercy of a woman whose head looked like a crab.

"What I am, is simple. I am one of the quartet of goddesses that created the universe," Washu smiled sadly. She could see Hild's mouth open and close several times as the knowledge sank in. "I'm the goddess of intellect, Tsunami is the goddess of Nature, Tokimi is the goddess of war, and your maker was Konako goddess of faith. And all but Tokimi are here on this planet oddly enough."

Morrigan, try as she might, couldn't grasp even the slightest thing the living embodiment of thought was saying, not surprising. "What does that have to do with anything?" Hild might have wanted to know, but Morrigan didn't like wasting time.

Jumping up and not coming back down, Washu sat on an invisible beam. "It has to do with who you're hunting." Washu hadn't realized what Shinji had been doing to her since they came into contact with one another, but she was starting too. "Whatever that boy is, it transcends even we Four. He forced me to remember just by touching me, and now he's out there on the streets moving because he has a purpose. In just over three days a vaccine for these women will be created, and only he can administer it. You two could try but without proper knowledge of the base you'd just destroy the delicate technology before you succeeded."

Her head low, Hild had to admit she knew nothing of Nerv or much of technology, Morrigan the same. The pair listened to Washu as she told them everything. They heard about Ritsuko's experiment, the outcome, and what was going on around them. Shinji was running the gambit for not only the men but the women, and he was going into the White Lion's den hoping to get access to a viable untraceable computer access to find a way back into Nerv.

The sun was setting when Washu finished her recounting and let the duo move, the sank heavily to the ground. Hild was stricken to her core to realize entities existed as far above her as she existed over humans, and Morrigan was amazed at the selflessness of her master. But both of them stopped and looked at Washu and asked in one voice, "If you're one of the goddesses of creation, how could a mere human affect you?"

Washu didn't have an answer, but she was thinking about it.

X- And that means something big – X

Author notes

Action packed chapter with lots going on. Trying to keep things suspenseful and moving and not stagnating. People are learning new things, Shinji is moving from point to point and getting what little help as he can. Hope you liked this latest offering and continue to support my oddities

FYI I'll be staying at the first overflow hotel for ACEN so if anybody out there in internet land is going to the con I hope to see you there.

Ja Mata

Zentrodie (zentrodie-dot-geo-at-yahoo-dot-com)


	34. He's not a smooth operator

Standard Disclaimer

Looks like summer is finally here, and about time too. Just another chapter of this oddity, hope you enjoy.

X-X

What We Make of it

Chapter 34 – School Days

Or

Sneaking and snacking 101

With the sun gone and the moon out, Shinji had suspected the school would have been completely empty. He unfortunately was wrong. The Whites base had a skeleton crew working while the lower top floor had been converted into sleeping quarters. Climbing over the outer wall, he bypassed the security he hadn't known was there at first. "Ok, this is going to be harder than I thought."

The majority of the Whites were either sleeping or out in the city searching, but a few were making patrols of the halls and several were in the Home-ec room cooking for their sisters. Of those awake, most were chatting and simply having a fairly good time as they waited for either their shift in patrol or news of the capture of a man.

Peering in the windows, Shinji hunted for an empty room. Finding the music room totally absent of femininity, the sneaking boy pulled back the window and dove in. "I wish I had a flash light," he moaned. Sure it would have given him away instantly, but it was better to have something on his mind other than his potential fate. Unless Washu could fix her computers, Shinji needed to find a way into Nerv on his own. His escape path, both Washu and he agreed, would more than likely be guarded now.

"I need supplies to," he whispered as he crawled along the floor, careful of the girls walking past the internal windows and doors. He saw a pale girl with platinum hair carrying a laptop and he sucked in his breath. "Computer check, now I need another bag, and some replacement ammo."

A crackling voice came through the ear bud, "Shinji," it was Washu. "Things up here are worse than I suspected. Kos-Mos put the hurt on my power supply on her way in." The adult Washu was not happy about the damage her home had incurred, but at least it was only 'things' and not 'people' that got damaged. "I sent Morrigan and Hild out after Asuka and Kos-Mos to try and keep them occupied and off you for a while."

Pushing the mouthpiece closer in, Shinji tried to keep his voice as absent of depression as he could. "I think I found a good computer. A girl, Ruri if I remember her name, was really into computers. I saw her and she had a laptop with her. I'll go after her." All he had to do was knock her out and borrow said device for awhile. "Anything you can tell me about the school right now?"

A spark shot out from over head causing Washu to flinch, "Only that you go to them for learning. My stuff is all being rebooted right now. Auto-repair systems are working but it looks like eight to ten hours until I'm back on-line. I'll do what I can to keep tabs and inform you of other movement down by you. Just stay out of sight and safe." Washu hated feeling so powerless, but she couldn't hurt or kill those women and without her gadgets that's about all she could do. Turning off her speaker, "Akagi-kun, you'll be sorry when this is all over."

While it was absolutely the worst possible news he could have heard, Shinji did his best to not let it dishearten him. "This just keeps getting better and better." Finding an abandoned backpack on the ground, sure it was a girls, it was pink, and had ribbons on it, it would do the job. Emptying the contents on the ground, he found a compact that had a mirror in it. "I can use this," he pocketed the make-up and crawled to the door.

A pair of girls walking down the hall chatted happily. "Rei-sama promised me I could go fourteenth," Miaka Yuuki gushed to her partner. After Rei woke up from the fight with Sasami, she radioed in with the order that all patrols needed to have at least two so if one got knocked out the other could pounce. "I hope they get him soon, I just can't wait much longer."

Ami blushed and held her hand before her face, "I always knew Ikari-kun and I were destined to be one. Unfortunately Ayanami-sama has me listed in the thirties. I should have sided with the Whites sooner rather than listen to my mother and wait." All the other senshi were much higher on the list and it didn't make Ami happy in the slightest. "Have you heard the latest reports? After the reds attacked his apartment, Ruri's program gave the school a forty percent chance of being his next target."

"Ruri's not been wrong yet about his movements," Miaka said more to herself than Ami. "Maybe we'll be breaking him in tonight! Oh did you see the room that was prepared for it?" Miaka gushed as the pair walked past the music room door. Feeling a slight pinch, Miaka looked down to see a tiny dart in her leg. Then oblivion.

Ami only had a moment to notice her partner fall before coming eye to eye with Shinji. "He…" she started to yell but the dart in her chest silenced her. For one blazing hot moment though she felt lust so profound her head about burst with all the blood flow. The pair were dragged into the music room propped up as carefully as possible.

"Sorry about that, but this way I can move easier," Shinji apologized to the pair. Hearing Ami speak so candidly about what number she was in line for a ride on the Shinji express unnerved him. These weren't his friends and acquaintances anymore. Sure they might look like them and act like them to a degree, but they weren't the same person. Keeping his knees bent and hunched over, Shinji made his way down towards the computer lab. Ducking into the men's room when a trio of older girls walked by, he heard again about the Red's attack on his place.

His head dropped slightly, "Even now people have to split into factions. Nobody can every work together fully." But that was a good thing he had to admit. If the whole city was working as a single unit, he'd have already been caught. Checking left and right, he hustled to the door to he computer lab, seeing the back of the girl's head, he remembered seeing Ruri in the computer lab a lot back when things were normal, but he never talked to her. Aiming at the more than little tasty looking rump, Shinji regretted how intimidated he'd been of Ruri in the past. Firing the dart, he was totally surprised when it bounced off an invisible sheet of plastic.

"You are five minutes earlier than expected," Ruri said as she stood up and turned around. "I'll have to adjust my calculations for your speed in Omoikane for future reference." Ruri had been more than pleased with her creation. It predicted Shinji's actions based on personality profiles and first hand accounts of his actions. Before the drug altered her, she had a passing fascination with Shinji, to shy to ever say anything to him but always paying attention when he was around. "If you would stand up and put your hands behind your head I will promise to be gentle with you."

Standing straight up, Shinji frantically looked back and forth expecting women to come crawling out of the wood work. He'd been spotted by this girl, expected, so shouldn't there be more waiting for him? The stun gun in Ruri's hands pointed at him kept his hands pointed skyward. "What are you going to do to me, Ruri-san?"

Taking a step back, Ruri was astonished to find out Shinji actually knew her name, that hadn't been in her calculations at all. "First off I had to keep this a secret from my clan, or they'd be to eager to let you fall into the trap. Second, I'm going to make love to you now as being number twenty I don't want to wait that long." Taking a step forward, Ruri fully expected what happened next, Shinji's left arm came down and fired a shot at her center of mass. Dodging to the side she got behind a terminal.

"I can't let you do that, Ruri-san. You don't really want that, it's just the virus talking!" Shinji kept his voice down as he dove down an aisle of computers and rolled under a desk as one of the stun darts hit right where he had been. "If you were thinking logically, you'd never think that way about me."

"You're planning to get behind me and hit me in a location filled with fatty tissue to not cause pain," Ruri said offhandedly to the boy spoiling his plan. "I know you, Ikari-kun, and this is what I want. I have studied you, and watched you, and pined, and now you are mine. Omoikane can predict everything you'd do." Ruri spied her laptop for the next step in the 'Ikari-Model'. _He will attempt to lull me into a false security and try and shoot. I will shoot first._

Shinji however, was a much more adaptive thinker. _Shit, Washu was right I'm going to have to do some things I'm not proud of. _If Ruri's computer could predict all the things he normally would do, he'd have to do something completely out of character. And while he wanted to talk Ruri into a weak spot and fire, he'd have to do it in a different way. Standing up, "Ok, I surrender," he pointed his manacles high. "You'll be gentle right?"

Her eyebrow twitch, Ruri wasn't sure about this but her hormones wanted it. Taking a fugitive step towards him, Ruri kept the stun gun pointed. "You surrender?" her voice laden with skepticism, but hinting at excitement. If he submitted then she could sample the goods well before Rei and that wouldn't be bad at all. "If so, I want proof. Take your shirt off."

Not moving, "I thought you said gentle? Shouldn't a kiss be the first step in gentle?" Shinji felt sick inside leading the girl on, but he had no choice. Ruri's face blushed such a rosy tint that it hurt the boy inside to see it. But it gave him a vital piece of information. _Part of their real personality still exists behind the virus's actions. _As the timid girl stepped closer to him, Shinji slowly wrapped his arms around her, her trembling against him was achingly saddening. "I surrender," he said again as he brought the willingly duped girl in and kissed her chastely. The moment Ruri's eyes closed Shinji fired.

Holding the now unconscious Hoshino in his arms, Shinji felt as if part of him died. "I'm sorry but I have no choice." He'd just stolen a kiss to buy a moment of weakness in his skilled adversary. Using the girls own personality and the virus's inherent need for sex against her. Laying her down, Shinji put the laptop in his bag, turned off the light, and headed towards the cafeteria for more ammo.

X- Logic fails when emotion turns up – X

"Man I am so bored," Touji moaned as he continued to bounce a rubber ball off a wall. The jock had played cards with some of the other men for about two hours before returning to Kensuke's side. "I mean, how long are they going to make us stay in this place?"

Feverishly playing one of his many portable game consoles, Kensuke hardly heard Touji's comment. "Long as it takes I guess. If you're bored you can play with me? I have another unit and this thing has Wi-Fi." The geek patted his satchel which contained many things he was renting out. Having gotten the idea during the last angel drill, Kensuke had a small market of entertainment rentals. Cards, books, magazines (porn and not porn), mini laptops with portable hard drives with movies, he had thought if many routes. "Dad always needs more money for his boys."

Grabbing one of the units, Touji fell heavily against the wall. "This is just an abuse of power. Nerv can't really segregate us can they?" And that was the real issue Touji had, the absence of pretty women. Sure it sucked being locked in an underground steel gage, but being locked in a cage full of beautiful women was a mans dream. "They never did anything like this before. It makes you think."

Loosing his last life, Kensuke shut off his player, "What do you mean?" Turning to another man, a frequent customer, Kensuke handed the man another hard drive of porn. Such a strange man, even made Kensuke think the guy was a pervert, especially with the tinted glasses, beard, and gloves. "Nerv does odd things all the time."

"But never did they make the men and women go into different bunkers," Touji said exasperated. Following Gendo Ikari as the man headed back into the bathroom with Kensuke's rented gear in tow, Touji prayed he was never as depraved as that man. "And what about all those sounds before at the gate, I could swear that was an explosion."

Opening his laptop, Kensuke tried to get connected to the internet again, "Maybe something is wrong with our door. It's no big deal. We have plenty of food and water in here, I can make a mint selling entertainment services, and we won't have to go to school tomorrow if this keeps up." Sure they'd have to reschedule Shinji's welcome back party, but all things in time.

Booting up a saved state, Touji just couldn't shake the feeling something major was going on. "I wish Shinji was here, he'd know what was going on." As much as it mystified Touji, the meek Ikari always did have a habit of knowing exactly what was going on around them. "Or that I snuck off into the girls' bunker. Man, I wonder what they're doing over there."

"Having a big lesbian pillow fight, Touji," Kensuke said with as much conviction as he could muster. After keeping his face calm for a whole two seconds, the geek started laughing. "They're probably just as bored as we are, if not more so since they don't have all this stuff over there," he patted his bag lovingly. "I'm sure by morning, whatever is going on will be over and we'll be out of here." Another man came over, this one rented a deck of playing cards.

That odd feeling in his stomach disagreed, and Touji for once wasn't ignoring it. "I don't know, but I have a feeling something bigger is going on out there." Touji, for some odd reason, wished Shinji's vacation had ended a little sooner than it had. "And what are you doing now?"

"Writing down your tab, you have to pay just like everybody else," Kensuke grinned as he hammered Touji's 'discount' into the spreadsheet. Only way Touji could ever pay Kensuke back would be to win the Ikari-500 and be the only winner on an off bet woman. _Maybe I can get Shinji in on this to help me make a real mint! Sasami is the front runner…but if either Ami Muzino or that Hoshino girl win it's a huge payout!_

X- Kensuke's mind is a dangerous place – X

Wiping the sweat from her brow, Attim grunted in frustration. Three more Greens had been found in route to the Ayanami apartment, but after a steady trashing none of them had any real information. "I must find him," Attim was playing nice for now, but once she got her wayward pupil she was leaving this taco-stand for good. No matter what devices tried to keep them in the city she could phase through them.

Rolling up the Attim in the mobile scout van, Shion flagged the semi-clothed warrior down, "Attim, any word from them?" Shion didn't really want to comment on how Attim was naked from the waist up, but it was distracting to say the least. "Katsuragi and Akagi just radioed in that the apartment had been raided. And the man at the Buddhist temple is still inaccessible."

Climbing into Shion's van, Attim just grumbled. "No, the last few Greens I found were only following the last update that had him at Ayanami's. Since that building has been destroyed by the fighting there its doubtful Shinji would return." She could almost sense him, Attim realized. After training being with him alone for his training, Attim was on the cusp of locking on his Chi. "Any word on the White's plans?"

Chuckling, Shion pulled out and tossed Attim her latest tracker. "Little girls are all going to be for the night. And if my tracker is right he's right under there noses." His movements were indication enough that he wasn't captured. Had Shinji been neutralized he'd be in the same space and likely tied down. "I have a proposition for you, Attim."

Clutching the metal box with both hands, Attim almost shattered the device with her anticipation. "Let's hear it," Attim could almost tell what was going to happen before Shion said it. Shion was, as Attim could tell, a schemer and crafty woman. And any woman that created a semi-godlike android with the sole purpose of finding a husband had to have more than a few screws loose.

"I'm not a fighter, you are, if the two of us join up we can get the target and keep him to ourselves," Shion began to salivate a little as she drove. Heading towards the school, Shion hadn't informed the other Red's about her discovery and made a beeline straight to the attack squad commander to make her proposition. "We get him, and we share him. If we got anybody else involved that would mean a lot less time between the sheets for both of us."

While fifty/fifty was a lot better than 1/429,038, Attim wasn't a 1/1 relationship with her one and only pupil. "So you'd share your gadgets with me to find him, if I do all the fighting to secure him?" The ebony locked beauty could tell deception would befall her if she accepted Shion Uzuki's plan. _But it is the easiest and fastest way to get to him. _

Coming to a stop a block away from the White's headquarters, Shion could see a few guards standing at the school's gates. "Its either that or neither of us get our fill of action." And Shion was aching for it. Her keen mind surveyed the school. With so many lights off it was a clear sign that the target hadn't been found, as on the first night it would likely be a non-stop romp. "Katsuragi's plan to ration him out to us until more men are found isn't good enough for me."

An explosion overhead prevented Attim from replying, both women gazed up into the night sky to see it so bright it appeared to be day. Asuka and Hild were fighting it out and the princess of hell was throwing some serious heat around. Sensing her vassal as she drew nearer to him, Asuka made straight shot towards the school only to be intercepted by her step mother, and Asuka wasn't in a sane mind frame.

Diving out of the car as flaming debris fell towards it, Attim left the stunned scientist near her destroyed toys. Knowing where Shinji was now, Attim didn't need Shion as the silly scientist led the strongest martial artist in the city right where she wanted to go. Unknown however to both women, Attim was bugged with a surveillance device that Ritsuko made and the Red's were on the move.

"I'm coming for you, Shinji-sama, and when I get you I'm going to teach you many new moves," Attim's heart was all a flutter as she rushed the guards.

X- Nobody is really taking the whole team thing seriously –X

Watching the light show outside, Shinji was to far away to see what was really going on, all he knew was that it stirred the hive up something fierce. A lot of the sleeping girls had been woken up see the events, and that meant he had to move even more carefully. "At least most of them seem to be on a higher floor," he said thankfully.

With the laptop and its cords in the pilfered bag, Shinji just had to get to the cafeteria and make a few more rounds of ammunition to replace what he'd lost. Then get out before anybody spotted him. Using the mirror from the compact, he spied around a corner to see Usagi and Minako gawking out the window at the lightshow. Dashing around the corner, the avoided them and continued towards his next goal. "Washu-chan, what is going on by the school? Something is really bright and distracting the girls here."

Shocked that Shinji somehow could tell she re-child sized herself, Washu chuckled to herself. "Well it seems you've been bugged somehow Shinji." The scientist would have to come up with something to broadcast over the earpiece to disrupt that. "The distraction is Hild keeping Asuka busy and away from causing you third degree burns on your little friend. The adults are making a sizable move towards your location, and those amazons are right behind them." Washu didn't like this, things were always one step ahead of Sasami's fiancé and that wasn't looking good.

"Great, do I have time to get some ammo or do I have to go with what I have left?" Shinji's response was one of fading enthusiasm. Stalking closer to his goal, hiding as another gaggle of females rushed to watch his new mother and his friend fighting above the city. "And what am I going to do about sleep, Washu-chan. If they can pinpoint where I am I can never sleep." And with his body already begging for it, Shinji was going to have to do something soon.

Already getting some ideas about what could be done, Washu drummed her hands across her illusionary keyboard. "Give me some time, Ikari-kun, and I'll have a solution. You just keep up with your plans. The adult forces are at least twenty minutes from your location and they'll have to deal with the others to get to you." And it seemed the school age girls didn't have a tracker on him or he'd be kneed deep in women by now. "And just remember these women are basically the same…just with the unquenchable need to boff you for the rest of their life. I know you're upset at what you had to do to get that computer, but in the long run it's for the best. Keep that in mind."

Hearing Washu's channel go silent, Shinji clenched his fist so tight it hurt. "I can't let this get worse." Pushing open the door to the cafeteria, Shinji stole in and made his way to the stock section. With Washu's suckers in his pocket, food wasn't on his mind, just getting to the toothpicks and cleaning chemicals was. "Whoever made these things really is a genius," he murmured as the Washu O's popped out without knowing why on their Master's shoulder.

Making a good number of rounds and reloading each arm to full, Shinji stuffed the extras in his bag. For a moment he considered putting the chemicals in too, but couldn't risk it. "If the bottle breaks it would break the laptop or leave a trail right to me." Taking aim at a bag of flour, Shinji attempted a test fire.

Nothing happened.

He tried again, still nothing. Looking at the nozzle of each armlet he saw two darts lodged in each, a misfire and a jam. "Shit, how do I fix this?" he couldn't grab the dart or he'd risk knocking himself out, but he didn't have the tools to dislodge it. And to make matters worse, he heard a large crash, a metal pan falling to the ground and a pair of gasps. He'd been spotted. Switching from his weapons to the epicenter of the crash, he recognized the two girls. "Nodoka and Shinobu-san…"

Both girls stood silent with wide eyes. They had come to make a late supper for the returning patrols, and here they find the object of said search. While other men were sought after if they were heard of, the main goal was Shinji. But what could they do, Ayanami-sama told them Shinji was capable of defending himself, and they weren't fighters. They had high numbers because of that fact, all they were was support and that left them low in the pecking order.

"Shinji-san," Nodoka squeaked out as inched for the door, Shinobu to stunned to move. "We have to get the others!" But part of her didn't want to let them know yet, didn't they have the upper hand, two against one. "Shinji-san, you'll have to c-come with us to the bed c-chambers. We…we are going to make full use of this." Her face burnt horribly with embarrassment, but the drive was so strong it kept her from running.

Her dreams playing horribly with her mind, Shinobu actually took a step closer to Shinji and not the door. "We won't h-hurt you. But you have to do what we s-s-say or the others will have to take drastic measures." She could smell him, and it was a rich aroma. But as much as the virus wanted her to rush the man and pin him down, her own personality was making her light headed.

Listening in over Shinji's comm, Washu could tell something had happened. "Shinji, remember their own personality is somewhere inside. Both those voices sound very timid and shy. And since judging from your swear your bracers aren't working, you'll have to deal with them physically." Washu wished she had time to give Shinji a visual unit so she could see what was happening, she had to judge based on sound. "So ether knock them unconscious or find some way to make them faint."

_How the hell can I do that!_ Shinji's mind boggled at the prospect of actually hurting the two frightened girls before him. Yes they were going to do things to him he rather not do unless he loved the person, but he didn't want to hurt them. "Can't we work something out? Just between the three of us? D-Do you have to call the others?"

Nodoka's hand stopped, her fingers dangerously close to the fire alarm. She was going to pull it to wake up the rest and draw the girls to their location, but this was a twist. "Between us? You mean Shinobu-chan, you, and myself…a t-t-three way?" Her heart about burst from her chest at the prospect, her purity warred with her hormones. "S-Shinobu…did you want to? Both of us are so far down the list…"

Her mind hazing over as her dreams of a world were Shinji and she were in a relationship drew her to him, Shinobu liked that idea very much. "W-what if the others hear…they'll be angry at us for not bringing him to Ayanami-sama immediately." But while she said that she shimmied closer to Shinji moment by moment. "A-and we'd need proof you're not just saying that to trick us. I-if you are so willing now…why didn't you come to Ayanami-sama's broadcast?"

Each time he slowly drew his arms down, Shinji noticed Nodoka's hand going closer to the alarm. "I was afraid, that's why. But with you two being so…beautiful I….I'm more willing." Yes they were very attractive in a bookish sort of way, Shinji was hoping more to short circuit their brains. He remembered seeing girls like them panic and faint when over stimulated, he just hoped he could due such a shameful thing and not break down himself.

Both shy girls looked at each other and nodded, moving closer to each other, they blocked the door but moved away from the alarm. "W-we'll do it, g-get on the floor now…" Nodoka whimpered while Shinobu asked "T-take your shirt off." Both looked at each other again and blushed and thought _She wants to be on top/bottom! _ And they both slowly began to disrobe.

Swallowing hard, Shinji was mystified at the twin action his potential captors were displaying. Undoing a few of his buttons, "I really should t-thank you two. I mean it's not every day you get to be with such gorgeous women." He saw them both blush harder, there entire body almost radiated heat. _Talking like this makes me feel dirty…but actually going through with this would be worse. _His fingers worked towards his pants, "You two sure you can handle this, I mean I can get pretty wild."

Eyes as big as saucers Shinobu's head bobbled yes while Nodoka's shook no, but both continued to close in. Light headed and hyperventilating they coy duo were in no way mentally prepared for the reality of what they were doing. Shinobu reached out for Shinji and found her hand caught in his.

Drawing the girl in close, smelling the fruity shampoo she had last used, Shinji took in a deep breath and gazed deeply into her eyes. "So you're first are you? Promise you'll not be to rough?" And thankfully that was the last it took for Shinobu's brain to go into lalaland as her eyes rolled back and she fainted with a content sigh. Holding the woman, whose shirt was unbuttoned and left her semi-exposed, Shinji turned to Nodoka. "Guess she wasn't ready yet, but you look like you are."

Nodoka took one step closer to Shinji and the last synapse popped and she was barely caught by the boy before she hit the ground. "Thank god for that…and stop laughing Washu-chan!" Shinji grimaced as Washu's cackling could be easily heard over the ear bud. "I'm not good at this sort of thing, I'm only lucky that they were worse than I am!"

Wiping a tear from her eye, Washu could only imagine what sort of pedestrian seduction act Shinji had just played. "I'm glad you're you, Shinji-kun, otherwise I'd have to question your motives here." Letting out a big content sigh, "Anyway get a move on and I set up a frequency to be emitted by your ear bud to disrupt any electronic surveillance that might be on you," Washu said. "Get out of there and to the building a block down to the south. It's abandoned and off the beaten patrol path. You can get some sleep there."

Looking down at the frazzled pair, Shinji was grateful it had been so easy to make the duo short out. He was lucky, grabbing a dart from his bag, he freed the jams in each bracer and left. With the fight in the sky keeping the girls distracted Shinji easily snuck out a classroom window and successfully got to Washu's location…an adult book store. Gritting his teeth he broke in and fell asleep behind the counter.

Back in the school however, Hotaru spotted the drained girls, their state of undress and euphoric looks started the girls gossiping quickly. The word was that Shinji had very successfully petted the girls into a bliss filled shock. They intensified the searching, and Rei had a stern talking to with them after they came too.

X- Shinji sucks at seducing – X

Standing on the overpass high above the city, Misato looked down. This had been a great place to watch the technological marvel that was Tokyo-3 rise and fall into the earth as needed. Now she looked over her city and the sky above it. To the north and the east aerial battles were taking place. Her contacts said it was four greys fighting it out, but that didn't matter.

"What do you have to report?" Misato asked without looked at her trusty number two. Misato's spy in the Greens had contacted her twenty minutes ago and informed her that the subject had avoided begin caught at the school, and that the Whites had a possible contact with two of there own and Shinji. _He is mine, if the rumors are true I will have the school and all the whites eliminated. _

Coughing discretely, Ritsuko adjusted her collar, "We failed to find him at the school. Attim rushed in and alerted the whole lot of them and in the confusion he slipped out." A sad fact, as Ritsuko was just as wanting as the rest of the virus infused female populous. "We have no news on Rei's location or the Grey that attack her apartment."

Her face didn't change, her stature remained still "What of Uzuki?" Misato's bug on Attim was necessary, as Attim was the closest to a Grey that they had till now so Misato needed to keep tabs. Shion however, well now Misato knew the grease monkey had other plans than for sharing. "Have you gathered her?"

"She still claims total loyalty to us, and that all she was doing was testing M-Zak," Ritsuko let out a beautiful plume of smoke. Not caring much for the resident mecha-fetish scientist, Ritsuko was tempted to throw Shion in the brig. "I don't believe her."

A small half smile crested Misato's lips. "Nor should you, but let her go. It's all part of the scenario." Misato never trusted any of her subordinates. They all wanted what was hers and would lie, cheat, and backstab to get it. The good thing was, since they were all like that it was easier to manipulate them. "The Greens are planning on enslaving the Whites and making them into a work force. The Whites have lost there primary data source as the Package stole it from another potential lay." Ruri was reported as being completely frazzled and her fingers kept tracing her lips, a sign something happened.

"If the Greens and the Whites join, what chance do we have?" Ritsuko was leery of adding Grey's to there cause because she couldn't logically think of a reason the powerful beings wouldn't turn on them. "We'd be overrun unless we used deadly force."

Knowing Shinji as she did, Misato knew she couldn't kill or the boy would never submit fully. But she could threaten at first, and come clean later after he was totally hers. "We needn't worry about either of them. I've been offered a new recruit to the cause. One that would keep Attim in line and those two free agents keeping Big Red and Big Blue at bay." Asuka and Kos-Mos were the biggest wild cards that all sides had to worry about. Even if they succeeded in getting Shinji, Asuka and Kos-Mos would be a threat. "Maybe even deal with those two as well." Misato tossed Ritsuko a mini-television. "Turn it on."

"I don't have time for whatever new strip tease Ayanami is using to try and lure inferior stock. Both you and I know that Shinji is the main target, and that all others will just be used by you to placate our minions," Ritsuko wasn't stupid, hell she helped Misato make many of the plans. "But whenever we hear of a man, by the time we get there he is gone. We'll have to share him once we get him Misato, its just how it is."

"Turn on the television," was all the response Misato gave. Hearing the switch, Misato's half grin went full blown. A flash of light and a chocolate brown hand emerged from the screen followed by platinum tresses and the rest of Urd's body. "Say hello to the newest member of the Red faction."

Ritsuko could only gap as Urd bowed and blew her a kiss. Misato had gotten a Grey on there side, a powerful one. And the balance of power was shifting again, away from Rei and her school yard seductresses back into the adults' hands. And while the scheming and backstabbing continues, Shinji slept uncomfortably but safely and day one had ended.

X-X

Author notes

Trying not o keep it all ecchi and trying to add some intrigue and suspense. Basically I'm just having fun with the idea…its not Shakespeare but its fun and if you enjoyed it that's all that matters. Hope you did anyway.

Ja Mata

Zentrodie (zentrodie-dot-geo-at-yahoo-dot-com)


	35. Not a good day for thinking

Standard Disclaimer

Man I just realized I've been writing this story for a few years now. Don't you guys get tired of it? Its fun to screw around with since its just a collection of short stories tied together with a loose plot. Oh well as long as I keep writing this thing probably will be my main 'off story'. I'm still hunting for a publisher, whoever said writing was hard didn't try getting published.

X-X

What We Make of It

Chapter: 35 – When Plans Collide

Or

Nothing is Ever Easy

"Shinji-kun, its time you wake up," Washu announced over the modified ear bud. Having worked though the night, the pint sized scientist had her systems back up and running at seventy percent capacity. "The sun is coming up and the patrols will be moving soon. You'll need to keep an eye out." Typing several commands into her computer she brought up the damage report from last nights fight between Hild and Asuka. It was bad, several city blocks got walloped by energy blasts, but at least nobody got hurt. Good news was it kept all the factions busy putting out fires and off Shinji's trail.

Rubbing his eyes and sitting up, Shinji stretched out his cramped and stiff muscles. "I would have thought I was used to harsh sleeping conditions after my time with Attim. But the floor isn't as nice as dirt I guess." He chuckled at the absurdity of enjoying sleeping on the open earth. Eyeing his surroundings, many of the scantly clad women and men on the covers of the books almost appeared to be mocking him. Popping one of Washu's suckers into his mouth to stave off hunger, "How are things looking today?"

Changing her focus, Washu did a quick scan of the city for movement. "Green's appear to be the hardest hit from Morrigan and Kos-Mos's fight. They're moving supplies from the destroyed buildings into a new one. Red's are most unaffected, go figure they are underground, but they are focusing on the city proper. I guess they were the ones that bugged you. The White's are all at the school, they appear to be having a meeting. No patrols in your area. Wait…" checking the name again of the building Shinji was in, Washu couldn't stop herself. "Why are you in an adult book store? The place I told you was across the street, a laundry mat."

Pulling out his borrowed computer, Shinji turned the tiny yet powerful creation of Ruri Hoshino on. "So nobody was hurt?" Shinji asked hoping to deflect the question. The sucker, watermelon flavored, was working wonders on his hunger pains. "And do you think I can just stay here for awhile and plan how to get back into Nerv?" His face was burning with embarrassment as he found the adult toys behind the counter with him. All manners of sinful toys were staring him in the face, and making his imagination work overtime in how they'd be used.

Eyes narrowing, the crab fetishist's voice took a haughty tone. "If you wanted to look at naughty things, Shinji, you could have just let yourself get captured by somebody." Did Washu think Shinji actually wanted to get a good ol' dose of perversion in while hiding? No, but it was fun to tease. "I mean any woman you find would gladly strip naked for you." He'd just have to do the same or they'd force him.

Shaking his head fiercely even though Washu couldn't see him, he flubbed, "No! Just with Ruri-san's computer program plotting how I'd act, I thought it best to do things I wouldn't normally do." Sure Ruri' 'Shinji Model' was now in his hands, he had no way of knowing if it wasn't a back up or somebody else created one like it. "I'd never come to a place like this so nobody would think to check for me here."

Pulling up a screen view of Tsunami gliding across the city scanning for her betrothed, Washu felt a burden growing inside her. "Shinji-kun, that's very sound thinking. But I think I have to ask you something important, and I want your honest answer to it ok?" The odds of Shinji getting through this ordeal unscathed were almost impossible. Which meant somebody was likely going to get a hold of him, and that meant dealing with the repercussions.

Sliding his shoes back on, Shinji reviewed Ruri's program on him and found it was spot on. "It's a little unnerving to see a computer program so accurately predict my movements. And sure Washu-chan, what do you want to ask?" It helped to have the monitor to focus on, because just thinking about what was going on around him was unsettling. Opening up the input folder, Shinji modified some of the characteristics they assigned to him just in case he lost the computer.

Her fingers stalled at her computer, Washu wanted to ask Shinji her hypothetical but it was a touchy topic. "Shinji-kun, what are you going to do if you get caught and can't get out. Yesterday you were close, but you were able to short circuit those girls. What if somebody like Sasami traps you?" Refocusing the auto-repair bots to work on the teleporter, Washu prayed the five-day estimate on repairs was an embellishment.

Breath lost, Shinji couldn't move for several moments. "I don't know. I can't let that happen." If he couldn't get free, the alternative was a life scaring event. Connecting to the shops wireless, Shinji tried logging into the Nerv mainframe but was stopped dead in his tracks. "Stupid passwords…honestly Washu-chan I can't let that happen. I won't let her hurt herself by doing something she doesn't want to."

And here was the hard part and Washu committed herself to it. "She wouldn't, Shinji-kun, Sasami wouldn't regret it at all. That girl loves you, balls to bone, through and through." She could hear the boy's deep inhale, a clear sign of shock. "I've been with her for a long time, I saw her crush on Tenchi and know it pales to what she feels for you. But being royalty means she can't act on her emotions as much as she would want to." Even on Earth, Sasami had to act in accordance to her royal lineage.

"But that's still…she's still not herself…I couldn't," Shinji stammered but Washu's little tidbit of information shot a big hole in his reasons. He didn't want to let somebody do something they'd regret, but he never thought of the idea that they wouldn't regret it. And Washu's comment on royalty also meant that for Sasami, now was the only time she could truly act on her inner most impulses and wants. "I would rather it not come to that," he lowered his head.

Noticing Nerv's mainframe had just been hit, Washu followed the trail back to Shinji's laptop and grinned. "I feel the same, but it's something you have to realize. A lot of your friends, well female friends, are actually in the same ship as Sasami is. They actually care about you. And you might need to make use of that for the greater good." It made the genius feel dirty, but it was a hard truth. "If one or two girls catch you, you might have to sleep with them, and escape after they've fallen asleep or give you an opportunity to knock them out."

Just like Washu, Shinji felt a wave of revolution work down his spine and unsettle his stomach. "You're saying I might have to have sex with them to escape them. That's horrible!" But as hard as he fought against the idea, if he were trapped he'd have to try and escape. His captures were obviously going to try and buy a one way ticket to skin town so if need be he'd have to exploit that. A quick screen flash and Shinji's face paled, "Somebody is hacking my computer!"

Her grin turned into a sadistic lip turn, "Yeah that would be me, Shinji-kun. And I agree it would be horrible. But you have to ask yourself this. What is more horrible? Making love to somebody that cares about you in an effort to save them or letting them make you a permanent hostage and having everybody get a go on the old wonder weasel?" Uploading her program to Shinji's computer, Washu effectively turned it into a remote console for one of her own. Moments later an image of Washu popped out of the screen, and over Shinji's shoulder. "That's better, now I can see and hear you," she cackled, "I truly am a genius."

Eyes bulging as the two-inch by three-inch semi-transparent Washu face laughed manically, Shinji just shook his head. He didn't like what Washu was selling, but he had no choice but to buy it. Watching as his screen was hijacked by Washu's phantom fingers, he listened to the plan to get him into Nerv in two days. All the while his mind was fretting the appearance of even one woman to pass the window. _I want this to be over._

X – Morals are the thorn in the side of a good time – X

"Remain focused on locations from Ruri's backup copy of the Shinji model," Rei commanded her troops at the morning meeting. Noticeably absent were Shinobu and Nodoka as they were currently serving detention for breaking the cardinal rule. "The Green's scout parties will soon be moving again and the Red's are scheming to get the newest Grey to there side. We have to act fast, get the parcel and get to the hideout. Dismissed."

At their leader's command, the morning scout parties paired up and headed out into the streets. Discontent was building as the virus further altered their minds. The longer they went without, the stronger the drive was, and the more it overwhelmed them. Two of the girls had to be tied down because they became nothing but unthinking sex-starved maniacs. But rumors were starting that a coup was in the works. Rei wasn't acting like somebody that was willing to share, and they all knew it.

Once the bulk of her forces were gone, Rei exited the school via a back door. "Shampoo, what do you have to report about the Greens movements?" Rei had her own plans now, with the direct disobedience of her subordinates, Rei wasn't going to use them anymore. Her plan was changing to pit the Whites against the Red's to allow the Greens access to Nerv where she could lock them all up. Of all her henchwomen, only Ruri was now part of the plan. "And any word on Sasami's movements?"

Her mighty purple tress swaying, the Amazon kept in line, "Green's almost finished moving damaged supplies. Small party on scout at Nerv for weakness. Shampoo part of that group." It was how she was able to get to the school undetected and without breaking her cover, or so she thought at least. "Big blue haired girl was seen flying over park. Black ship behind her." Ryo-oki and Sasami were planning to channel nature to locate Shinji, meaning if he saw a plant they'd know where he was.

"Excellent, we will be planning a raid of Nerv shortly. The chemical found on the darts in the kitchen has been analyzed. We can replicate it and neutralize it now," Rei handed Shampoo a pill. It wasn't the neutralizer, only Rei and Ruri had that, but the others didn't need to know. "We will gain power over the Red's and I will use the Evangelion to find Shinji." A lie, it was all information Rei wanted to Green's to have to lure them in.

More in line with the Greens than the Whites, Shampoo was already planning on officially picking a side. But something was bothering her, "Why you go this way? You send all other parties south but you go north?" Why wasn't Rei following her own plans? Something was fishy about the soft spoken girl.

_Shinji will hide in places that are strange and foreign to him now that he knows of our predictive model. Likely in an adult store or strip club. _Rei had her revelation the moment after Ruri admitted to losing their primary source of tracking. "I have to gather supplies to make our ammunition for today's raid. Go back to the Greens now before they suspect you." Rei's first stop was going to be an adult movie theatre, a bar, and then a book store.

Hesitating for a moment, Shampoo wanted to question Rei further about her plans, but wouldn't risk showing any signs of transgression. "Report back in three hours, Shampoo be ready!" And that the Amazon bounded off towards the location of the scouting parties.

Once Shampoo had gotten far enough away, Shimei crept out of her hiding place and continued to follow Rei. While it was known to her that Shampoo was a double agent, Shimei didn't know who Shampoo officially rallied for. "Lead the way little girl, lead the way," she whispered as she kept shadowing Rei.

X – Trust needs trust – X

Hild was many things at many times, typically calm, cool, collected, sexy as hell, over powered, and happy. After her little tiff with Asuka however, Hild was hurt and angry. It wasn't that Hild couldn't easily defeat Asuka, but to do that would mean seriously injuring the out-of-her mind step daughter. Being the family centric person she was, Hild wasn't going to go full tilt and break the girl. "You, step-daughter, will have to have a very big apology ready when you get better," she huffed as she plopped the magically bound Asuka over her shoulder.

The princess of hell, still lost to her own passions and craving for her vassal, just bucked and strained against her confines. She could feel her beloved right below her! The building Hild had landed on after successfully hitting her with a charm of binding was the same book store Shinji had taken refuge in. Asuka, whose mouth was covered, wouldn't have said anything if she could, but she would take Shinji right then and there.

Flying up to her mother on her broom, Urd was stunned to see one of the big-bads had been neutralized. "Hild, I didn't expect to find you here. I was sent to stop Asuka." Urd was always well versed in lying. Misato had a deliciously nasty plan, drug Hild and get her to side with the Reds. "When did you get here?"

Not wanting to seem distrustful, Hild masked her scan of her daughter in a monster hug. "Urd-darling, mamma missed you," she cooed into the ridged body of her daughter. Feeling nothing different about her daughter's code, Hild relaxed a little. "I was afraid you were one of them," she flicked her head towards Asuka. "Mamma is glad her lil girl isn't a sex crazed freak." If only Hild knew Urd was normally closer to being lead by hormones than not she would have noticed just how altered Urd was.

"Hild please don't…" Urd pushed her mother off. While still under the virus's influence, Urd was still herself to a point, and that meant she couldn't side with the demons. "Have you seen Shinji anywhere, with all the fighting going on its dangerous for him?" Misato had been adamant to keep silent on the Shinji hunt. Urd didn't know why she had to keep the primary objective silent, but then again she joined the Red's because of her inability to make complex plans.

Laying Asuka down on the roof, Hild flexed her shoulder. "No I haven't sensed him. With so many powers flaring it's almost impossible to get a trace," she grimaced at her inability to find her wayward son. "If you're not infected, that means that little sister of yours, Bell-chan, should be fine as well. Can't you get her to find your brother?" And if Bell did help, since Goddesses were almost legally bound to, Hild would have another source of annoyance. _I swear that girl needs to get laid, but that means Keiichi needs to grow a pair of balls. _

If only Hild knew.

Stepping over Asuka, as the teenage hellspawn was seemingly grinding against the roof, Urd hoped Asuka wasn't totally broken. "Bell and Keiichi are a little indisposed right now. After the wedding it seems my sister awakened to a new world of…pleasing him." Keiichi's daily screaming and requests for sleeping pills struck Urd as comical. When they were dating the idea of Bell being stark raving mad for coatis would have made Urd have a seizure. "How are you feeling after your little show with her?" Urd's slender finger jutted at the near pornographic Asuka.

"Not killing something in a fight is a tricky thing, but your brother would be sad to lose this darling chippy I think," Hild pinched Asuka's cheek ignoring the lewd sounds. Standing up straight, "Aside from a little pain and nervous tension, I'm good." Knowing her adopted son might very well be the reincarnation of something greater that the Quartet of Creation was something else.

Rolling her eyes, Urd saw the opening she was looking for, "If you ask nicely I have a pill that would work that pain out for you. But I'm only giving it to you because you stopped her from destroying the city and killing countless people." While true, Urd could never directly show concern of love for her demonic mother, the pill was nothing but tap water laden with virus.

Taking the offered pill, remembering just how skilled a chemist her daughter was, Hild hesitated. Something seemed almost too easy, too nice about this. Urd was never polite or even cordial to her, and her she was giving pain medication? "Urd-baby why are you being all nice to me? You don't regularly treat your mother so kindly." It pained Hild to accept it, but once the madness was over Shinji would be a very accessible means to bridge the gap.

With nothing to say, other than 'because I want your power to get me a man', Urd chose to act impulsively rather than think. In a deft move, she slapped Hild's hand up and over the CEO of Hell's mouth and held it there until she heard the swallow. Had it not been such a surprise action, Hild would have easily deflected it. But the stress, fatigue, and worry left a tiny opening in Hild's defenses. "Sorry Hild, but we have need of you."

Almost instantly Hild felt a change spreading into her code, and as much as it hurt her to do it, backhanded her daughter so hard it sent the stunned goddess three city blocks away. "DAMN IT!" Hild screamed. She'd blinded herself to Urd's intention with hopes of having a real family. "Washu…" Hild spotted the flying citadel of science and knew what she had to do. With her powers running out of control, she'd easily find and likely kill her son with love. Not something she wanted to do. So she'd need the Goddess of Science to put her in some type of stasis until she could get cured. Flying off at speeds that broke windows as she passed, Hild just prayed Shinji would be safe until she was better.

X- Hopes turn logic on its head – X

Attim was livid. Not only had the fight between Asuka and Hild disrupted her capture attempt at the school, but it allowed Shinji to mask his departure and prevent further tracking. On top of that, Shion's tracker wasn't functioning so they were officially in the dark about the packages location! "All I can do now is follow orders and hope Katsuragi is able to give me a location."

Phasing through buildings in a blind run, Attim was scouting the grocery stores. The other Red patrols were spread thin along the cities parameter, word was a trio of men were found at a catholic church and many were in route to verify. But deep in Attim's mind, she didn't want just any man. No there was one man in particular she was hunting and she was going to find him, mount him, and ride until the sun set.

Rounding the freezer cabinets towards the pharmacy section, Attim came to a skidding halt. Standing stock still, almost as if she were a real mannequin, was Kos-Mos. Scanning what turned out to be lubricants and lotions for skin abrasions. "Product identified as 95% match to master's size," her voice more robotic than ever announced to the empty store as she grabbed a box of magnums. "Non-master designated hostile detected," Kos-Mos quipped as her sensors detected Attim. "State your intention or be destroyed."

Putting her hands up, no longer covering her chilled naked upper torso, Attim came out from hiding in a freezer. Judging by the red smear on her face, Attim correctly pegged that Kos-Mos had a run in with Morrigan and this time didn't get away without injury. "Intention is peaceful," Attim hoped it was an acceptable response. Kos-Mos was the most feared rogue Grey, and Attim didn't know if she could escape even with the ability to phase through solids.

Her right hand transformed to her R-Scythe and she took up a defensive position. "Target identified: Attim M-Zak. Role: Guardian. Threat Level: Moderate." One of Kos-Mos's eyes burned a terrible blue while the other was a lifeless red. Her systems were undergoing an auto-repair after the confrontation with the Sailor Senshi and then Morrigan. "Leave this area or be destroyed," the android slashed downward and cut a neat three inch divot into the floor.

"I need your help finding Shinji, your master, before he gets captured," Attim brazenly asked. Taking a step back from the walking instrument of death, the skillful woman wasn't taking any chances. "If he is captured by somebody, he could be killed," Attim added hoping to bypass Kos-Mos's security system.

Lines of data streams and possibility scenarios ran lighting fast inside the super computer that made up the artificial part of Kos-Mos's mind. "Probability analysis is 86% that if caught by a solo woman he will escape. 68% chance he will escape without sexual activity. 30% chance he would be hurt. 2% chance he would be killed." Low odds, but Kos-Mos wasn't liking that 2%. "Partnership with M-Zak lowers chances at finding Master by 14%. Request denied. Repeat – leave or be destroyed."

Hands still up Attim gave Kos-Mos a wide birth as she moved around the android towards the door. "Just tell me what direction he is in then. What harm could come if I found him before you. I wouldn't be able to stop you, now could I?" She had to find him though, and fast! The Greens were likely going to be the faction that got him if she failed. Green enslavement would likely kill him before any attack could be mounted. "You can bug me if you want so you'll know when I find him."

Again Kos-Mos went silent as her programming ran the variables of the proposed alliance. On one end having a secondary set of eyes would speed up the search, but humans were not to be trusted. "Probability of duplicity 83.34%. Chances of M-Zak seducing Master 99.99%." Attim was beautiful in such an ethereal way that according to Kos-Mos's logistics, Shinji would resist for only three minutes before submitting. "Leave or be terminated," this time Kos-Mos opened her stomach to reveal her X-Buster. But for a flicking moment Kos-Mos's red eye flashed blue, "He is to the north, forces moving in," before her eye flashed back to solid red.

Catching the bizarre change in Kos-Mos's appearance, Attim wasn't going to question or wait for further explanation. _The blue eyes are her human side. The robotic and human are fighting for control right now. No matter he's to the north! _No reason to doubt the android might be fibbing Attim could feel it in her soul that it was right. "Hold tight Shin-chan, when I get you the two of us are going to have a real fun time," tracing her lips with her finger Attim was running at full tilt.

Leaving Kos-Mos behind to finish provision gathering, Attim was just repeating the stories she overheard at the school before she left. Ruri stated she kissed Shinji and that allowed her to be shot, and the twin shy girls were so frazzled by Shinji's actions. While nobody claimed to have actual bed him, it had gotten the teenagers into a whipped froth, and Attim was very much like them.

X- Kos-Mos isn't very trusting – X

"So do you understand the plan, Shinji?" Washu hoped it was a viable option when the time came for it. For the better part of the morning the pair spent going over countless floor plans of Nerv looking for some sort of access vent or backdoor that would allow Shinji a means of entry. "The vent is right by one of the Evangelion power stations. It'll be a long crawl through the vent system, but it will get you into the complex."

Sighing heavily, Shinji didn't much care for the only non-guarded or locked entry. "Good thing is I can do it from any power cord. But a mile worth of tubing to crawl through in the dark doesn't sound very appealing. Are you sure I can't bring the laptop with me?" That was the biggest problem Shinji had. Washu had been adamant that after the plan was designed Shinji hide the computer.

The holo-image circled around Shinji's head with the grinning scientist. "It's my plan Shinji so it's perfect if you follow it well!" Truth was Washu didn't like it anymore than Shinji. The plans showed the vent was a straight shot, but if it had been damaged or had an unexpected drop Shinji could die and there would be nothing anyone could do. "As for the computer…why the hell would you need one when you have me to do the work for you? So if you ever turned that computer off this video link would be shut off. So repeat after me 'trust the genius'."

Sliding the computer, with the top down, into a false floor in the shop that housed the owner's secret drug sales he sealed the panel. "The cord might give it away, but this is the best I can think of." Leaning against the wall, "How much longer do you think I can stay here?" Not really caring for the adult atmosphere of the shop, Shinji wouldn't have minded a change of location.

Hacking into a series of cameras that served as a security network for the shopping arcade, Washu didn't like what she saw. "We have incoming, that Ayanami girl is making a b-line straight toward you." This wasn't looking good, it seemed that some of these women were smart enough to see through Shinji's deception. "Get your bracers ready for her," Washu turned her volume down and shut off the visual unit less she give Shinji away.

Putting his back up against the sales counter, Shinji drew in a deep breath. "Ayanami, at least she wasn't hurt by Sasami," he readied his weapons and waited for the tittering of the doorbell to announce yet another potential threat. Sweat was pouring from his armpits as stress levels rose to a fevered pitch. Blood pumped hard and loud in his head as the jingling bells signaled Rei's entrance.

"Shinji, I've come for you. Just turn yourself in to me and I can spare you those other women," Rei scanned the room for any movement. Her first guess was the sales station, and while the imagery she got from the book jackets was enticing, Rei wanted out quickly. "Submit yourself to me and become my man. I promise you'll never regret it," she purred as sexily as a monotone girl could…not very well.

Rolling out from his hiding place, Shinji fired two shots at Rei's thigh, "Sorry, Rei-chan I can't let you do that to yourself." Washu's earlier statement that Rei actually might want a go with him pushed deeply into his subconscious. Letting out a sigh of relief when Rei slumped to the ground, he got up to his feet and walked over to her. Pushing his ear bud in, "If she came here, what are the odds she let others know who are on the way?"

"I don't know, Ayanami is a hard nut to crack. She might have come by herself to get some solo time in with you before the great Ikari-meat-market opened," Washu found humor a great way of stress relief. "Just hide her body someplace and get out before anything else happens."

Rolling Rei over onto her back, Shinji kneeled down to get a good look at her face. To his horror the moment his breath touched her, Rei's eyes shot open and she wrapped her arms around his head. Pulling her beloved in for a very sensual sampling of his lips, she found the tongue most exquisite. After a good five stunned seconds of deep dish action, she separated, "Sorry Love, but those darts don't work on my anymore. We found several unused ones in the cafeteria and made a vaccine."

Breaking out of the feather light grasp Rei had him on, and fighting to curtail his raging hormones that really enjoyed Rei's newfound ability to kiss, Shinji got up and back peddled to a wall. "R-Rei-chan, you…oh shit," Shinji muttered. He couldn't talk her out of anything, he'd have to fight her hand to hand and Shinji doubted he'd win. "S-stay back," he weakly protested.

Then the window shattered as an unknown figure dived in and knocked the staggered Rei back to the ground. Laughing jovially, Shimei's one exposed eye was focused solely on Shinji. "I knew following her would lead me to the prize, and a tasty prize at that." In each hand she held a set of handcuffs just itching for use. "Please put up a fight, when I beat you I can lord it over Hakufu."

Spinning on her back, Rei lashed out with her legs hoping to topple her top heavy attacker. "He is MINE!" she roared and actually broke her previous high for volume. When she failed to connect to anything, Rei tried to recalculate her plans…it wasn't looking good. Jumping up to her feet, assessing Shimei's fighting ability as best as she could, Rei knew she was severely outclassed.

"So the leader of the Whites wants to fight does she? Well a good workout before sex is always enjoyable, hope it gets you randy love," Shimei winked at Shinji before retargeting her opponent. By keeping Rei between Shinji and herself she'd be able to avoid those accused darts. A quick one-two punch to test Rei's defenses proved just to her liking. Rei wasn't a challenge at all.

Trying to get a bead on the new woman, Shinji kept getting blocked by Rei as she attacked or defended. "Rei-san get out of the way so I can hit her!" he pleaded but suspected Rei wouldn't listen. After several minutes of watching the dark blue haired, eye-patch wearing woman trounce Rei, "Please stop! She's no match for you!"

Never taking her eye of Rei, who was already bleeding from several bad bruises, Shimei kicked Rei in the stomach hard enough to knock her down. "So you don't want her hurt anymore do you?" Shimei had it! She had the key to ending this without a fight. "Shoot yourself with one of those little darts of yours then."

"He…is…mine!" Rei weakly rebelled as she tried getting back up. Her body ached, but it was her own fault for not bringing back up as she herself had ordered her minions to do. "You will not touch him," she coughed up a bit of blood. Then she felt a leg pressing against her throat cutting off her air.

"W-what are you doing?" Shinji asked flabbergasted as the woman started strangling Rei before his eye. "Let her go now please!" tears in his eyes, Shinji could fathom how quickly things changed. He could hear Washu asking frantically what was happening, but he couldn't spare the time to tell her.

Applying more pressure, feeling as Rei feebly tried to break her submission hold, Shimei tossed Shinji a pair of her handcuffs. "I'll release her, if you put those on. It's a trade. I let her go if you come with me." She'd knock him out of course the moment she got within striking range, she wasn't going to be tricked or beaten by this man and his knock out darts. Her body shuddered with joy and a slight dampening sensation as she heard the metallic click of the cuffs being slapped on. "Good boy," she eased up on Rei's throat, she was too weak to move now anyway.

Coughing hoarsely as tried to breathe too deeply for her damaged throat to allow, Rei watched in horror as the scene played out before her. Shinji tried valiantly to get a shot off before Shimei could draw close, but the restrictions of the manacles were to limiting. Dodging around the shot, she delivered a downward chop the back of Shinji's neck and he dropped like a bad habit. "N…no," she reached out for him. A horrible miscalculation on her point, she never suspected somebody to follow her to actually get the drop on her. But the real flaw had been Shinji. Rei didn't think a situation would occur where she was the bait to lure HIM out!

Housing the boy over her shoulder, favoring herself a quick squeeze of his rump, Shimei felt another shudder of bliss work through her body. "I always climax after a battle, thanks for the prize girl, you lead me straight to it." Patting Shinji's butt again as she started out, "I could have just killed you, but I think knowing you lost it all right here and now is more painful. I'll give him your regards after I claim him."

A moment later she was gone, running in a dead sprint back towards Green territory. The ear bud ripped from his ear and destroyed. Thankfully though the computer was left untouched, and when the Whites claimed their ex-leader, Usagi Tsukino the new leader had her wounds tended too before locking her up with Nodoka and Shinobu. Treachery wasn't to be tolerated, and Rei had twice had the prize and lost it.

X – Insert dramatic shift in events here – X

Author Notes

Things are never easy are they. Well it was bound to happen, his capture, now just have to see how he gets out. Tried to mix the humor/action/plot advancement in equal parts here. Hope ya enjoyed it.

Ja mata

Zentrodie


	36. Has anybody heard of teamwork before

Standard Disclaimer

Well another chapter of this little ditty. I'll be working on my lil zombie story for a while after this to finish it off. So hope this tides you over for the misadventures of Shinji in the multi-verse.

X-X

What We Make of It

Chapter – 36 "Trying to Escape"

Or

"How to stay a virgin and like it"

His head hurt as if it was a watermelon full of ants, buzzing and crawling all over the place. "What happened," he groaned as he tried to get up. His memory foggy, all he could remember was Washu's plan and the adult bookstore. "Washu I think your sucker was laced with booze or something because I have a killer headache and can't remember a thing." As he tried to rub his head he felt something he had missed before, cold steel encasing his wrists and confining him. "What the…"

"Don't struggle to hard, Love," Shimei cooed from her chair at Shinji's bedside. "I wanted you awake for my sampling, but I have to insist my toys stay on until you no longer want to leave." The violent yet charming fighter had broken into an apartment on her way back to the Green compound. Being the first man to get claimed by the group, this boy was going to be used a lot so Shimei wanted to get her fill first. That and the fact he had bested Hakufu made Shimei want him all the more. "Are you ready for me?"

His head whipping around, Shinji took in everything at a frantic pace. His wrists and ankles were handcuffed to the posts of a very luxurious four poster bed. A window to the right provided all the light in the room, and it was very bright outside. A small potted plant basked in the late morning light and appeared to be sad for some reason. "Y-y-you don't really want to do this, you know…you really don't."

Pulling herself out of the very expensive black leather recliner, clad only in her white panties and bra, Shimei's lips curled up in the most savage of grins. "Oh but I do enjoy a healthy does of affection after a fight. It really gets the blood flowing and helps me sleep." Swaying her hips seductively as she crossed over to her prey, "And sorry Love, I did inspect the goods and have to say I'm a little intimidated, but I think it can fit." Whatever that boy was eating, it went straight to one area of his body it seemed.

Suddenly very cold, Shinji rebelled against the shackles again. "I-I-I think it would be better if we wait until night? I mean I have a bad headache and don't think I'd be very…um…very good right now?" His brain was screaming danger like a broken record. And while the woman that had incarcerated him was strikingly beautiful, he really didn't want to get to know her as intimately as she wanted. "Washu…do something."

Laying on the bed next to the shaking boy, Shimei felt a pulse of excitement rocket through her. While far from being a virgin herself, she had never felt so much anticipation as this before. Trailing her fingers down Shinji's chest she whispered huskily, "That headache excuse won't work on me, Love. Cause I'll make you feel something that will take your mind far away from that." Gripping the bottom of his shirt, Shimei gave it a tug up exposing his stomach to the cool air of the apartment.

Then her cell phone rang.

Her head dropped instantly, "And we were just getting to the best part too…" Rolling off the bed, much to the ecstatic joy of the male occupant, and headed to her vibrating phone next to the plant that was now bobbing and weaving happily. Flipping the phone open, "What is it Hakufu? I'm a little busy right now." Thankfully nobody knew she had the man, nobody had seen her beat Rei except said woman and it appeared the deposed leader of the Whites wasn't talking.

"We're getting reports that the Whites are making a move against the Reds. We need you here so we can beat them both and then we can focus on finding men," Hakufu announced as she wandered the streets. "And we heard a rumor one of us found a guy, the one that beat me. So that means we'll have a celebratory party after whoever got him brings him in." Licking her lips Hakufu quivered, "I'm going to enjoy repaying him for that little love tap he gave me."

"Sure, sure, I'll be coming in shortly, I just have one thing to tend to first and I'll be there," Shimei ended the call and gazed hatefully at the tiny plastic device of annoyance. Turning back to Shinji, "Sorry Love, but I'll have to make this a quickie for now, later we can take hours to explore each others bodies. I'm sure you'll find mine tight in all the right places." Setting the phone down, it started buzzing again before she could take her hand off it. "Oh for FUCKS sake!" Flipping it back open, "Who the hell is this and tell me why I shouldn't curb stomp you?"

"Because then I'd have to shell your compound and kill everybody you care about," Misato said calmly without a moments hesitation. Hearing the reports from all her sources, Misato was close to completing her master plan. "I have on good authority that those children will be attacking us shortly, which means you're little club of debutants will likely be trying to crush both of us. AND I heard one of your number got the primary target." That had pissed Misato off and was forcing her to act prematurely. "You see him, you send the signal and we'll have a platoon in to extract you. Far fewer of us than your Green friends, but we are better armed. Report in now for full details."

Now Misato wasn't somebody Shimei could put off as casually as Hakufu. "Understood…I'll meet you in the normal location." Hanging up her phone again, this time her head hung low as well. "Well that just killed my good mood," grabbing her discarded shirt from the pile of clothing on the ground, she bent over Shinji. "Sorry Love…this time I have to go without a quick shot from your gun." Her hand trailed to Shinji's slacks and gave him a quick grope. "And he seems to eager to…well," kissing the resisting boy only stocked her fire more, "keep the home fires burning for me Love."

Saying nothing as his captor coped a good feel, he felt shame in reacting to it as he did, Shinji waited for the woman to get dressed and leave. "Shit…what do I do now?" he futilely tugged on the restraints. "When she gets back I need to have a plan," but what could he do when his only weapon was pointed fixedly at a wooden headboard. "Washu I need your help."

X – Last minute save from an obsessed Gendo like Misato…who knew – X

Pacing in the science clubs meeting room, Rei winced as she stepped too hard on her tender left foot. The ankle was swollen and a lovely shade of deep purple that matched the blotch on her throat. "Things are still close to being on schedule," she croaked out as she fell heavily into a chair. "What are you two doing anyway?" she asked the other girls locked up with her.

Sitting against the wall, Shinobu shook lightly with an eerie smile on her face. "I wonder what he did to me while I was unconscious…he'll have to take responsibility and marry me." In her mind, Shinobu had envisioned a romantic and passion filled Shinji claiming her as she lay sleeping beneath him. "I just wish I could have been awake to remember it."

Leaning in close to Rei, Nodoka spoke in hushed tones, "She's starting to go over the edge like the ones in the nurse's office." The timid girl knew unfortunately that nothing happened after the only male they saw since the change escaped them. She would have felt something different after an event like that. "She's going a little crazy, she's been talking to herself as if she and Ikari-san are married…that she bore his child." Nodoka was under the belief that Shinobu needed to be restrained soon or she'd hurt herself.

Knowing a little more than Nodoka, Rei's glare at the giggling teenager was laced with the hatred of another spurned love. Remembering when she first saw Shinobu and contacted the other Rei's other universes, Rei knew that at least two occasions of Shinobu marrying Shinji did happen. And maybe those other versions of Shinobu were talking to her. "I don't care what she does as long as she keeps her pants on," she said with disgust as she drew he knees in close.

"Um…Ayanami-sama, is it true that you found the boy that tricked us?" Nodoka's face burnt a lovely crimson as the memory of her almost tryst came back to the forefront of her mind. Typically afraid of men, Nodoka was taking the virus strangely compared to the others. "And you were going to keep him for yourself?"

Feeling a lancelet of pain trail down her body as her head swiveled, Rei blinked several times at the earnest question. "I would have shared him, but only until we found another male. Then he would have been mine and mine alone. He will be mine," the concluded. She had set to many pieces moving for Usagi to stop the events regarding the Reds, and that would mean the Greens would fall into place. "When I see that bitch again I'll take out her good eye," Rei's tiny hand formed into a powerful fist as she struck the ground.

"Oh Shinji-sama must have done such lewd things to my body to have me feeling so…so.." Shinobu pulled at her top ripping two buttons off. Rolling on the ground as the virus took even more sway over her brain, Shinobu was losing herself to the siren call. "I need to get out of here and see him again."

Both Nodoka and Rei slowly moved seats further away and out of sight of Shinobu. Neither said anything, nothing was needed to be said. The girl imprisoned with them was one step away from a mindless creature. In silence the pair just sized up one another. Rei was weighing the option of taking Nodoka on as a third, she did need a few people to get her plan to work, and Nodoka was trying to guess if Rei could be trusted at all.

When the panting from the other side of the table took a fevered pitch and went silent, Rei let out an annoyed snort. "At least she's quiet now, it should stave off the effects long enough for me to…" Ooops, one phrase to far to say, Rei realized as Nodoka's eyebrow raised. Before Rei could say a word to cover her slip, a knock on the door was heard. It was three sharp raps, a pause, and two more. Rei repeated the signal and the door latch was heard unlocking.

"Somebody is breaking you out!?" Nodoka gasped though her mouth was covered by her hands. Getting to her feet, the bookish girl inched closer to the sliding door. "Take me with you! Nobody here will ever trust me again, and they won't let me go either!" And she really didn't want to see Shinobu fall any further into the pits of depravity.

Ruri, garbed in a form fitting black leotard stood in and tossed Rei a bag, "We have five minutes to get out of here during the guard change." She jerked her thumb at Nodoka, "What are we going to do about her?" Ruri asked and pointed a gun loaded with the same darts Shinji had used on them.

Slipping the backpack on, Rei gave Nodoka a quick glance over. _She fainted at the mere thought of being with my beloved…she'd never be able to handle him. _And that meant she wouldn't have to fear Shinji siding with Nodoka over her. "Take her with us. She might prove useful in the end." Getting to her feet, Rei carefully exited the room with Ruri right behind her. "Did you sabotage their tracking options?"

The frail looking platinum bombshell smiled coyly, "I planted a virus in the copy of the tracking software to lead them far away from him. If they manage to avoid your trap at Nerv they'll be blind." The computer programmer was very satisfied with her work, "I've set up a temporary base at the government building. Let's go."

And without another word, the trio of girls stole out of the White HQ and towards Rei's plan. Nodoka was caught up in the whirlwind, but given the options she had. Stay and listen to Shinobu do things to herself and go crazy, go crazy herself, or go solo she had to admit she had a better chance with Rei and Ruri. The deposed leader of the Whites had only two things on her mind. Revenge and redemption.

X- don't piss Rei off or you'll never see her coming –X

"This just isn't my day…hell my week," Washu moaned as she was yet again back in her adult form. Wiping the blood away from her eye, she sat heavily into her chair and tried connecting to Shinji's ear bud. "Shinji, sorry about that but it looks like we lost Hild's help." Nothing came back but static. She didn't want to risk opening the holo image if Shinji was trying to hide so opted for the less evasive. "Shinji do you copy, Hild has been incapacitated."

Again nothing but static greeted her ears. Typing a few commands into her console, Washu tried to squash that tiny growing bug if discomfort. "He's just needing to hide is all…he's hiding and needs to be quiet." Opening a status screen, she saw Shinji's heart rate was a little more erratic than normal, giving more credence to the idea he was in danger but not immediately. "Damn that Urd girl for this."

Urd's ploy to get Hild to join the Red's had almost succeeded. After knocking the goddess of the past silly, Hild however escaped to Washu's lab. Giving the petite scientist the gist of things, Hild tried to maintain control as Washu frantically tried to create a method of rending Hild unconscious. It took almost two full hours for Washu to do it, but finally came up with a solution. Unfortunately by time she had, Hild was fully under the sway of the virus and no longer wanting to keep her son away from the pleasures of motherly love.

The ensuing fight had forced the reversion of Washu and even more damage to her lab. But in the end Hild was thrown into the stasis tube and rendered non-combative. All the while Shinji had been left unsupervised and alone.

"Hopefully he's still at that adult bookstore, last I heard from him that Rei girl was there and somebody else," Washu worked a kink out of her shoulder. She had vaguely remembered the conversation Shinji was having, but was to busy fighting Hild to get much sense of it. No matter though, he was capable enough. "Shinji, say something even if it's a heavy breath into the mic so I know you're ok," Washu pleaded.

Nothing, and then the flashing red light caught Washu's attention. Pulling up the status screen, Washu saw why Shinji wasn't responding…the device was destroyed. "This isn't good," that chill was now a full blown blizzard and Washu no longer wanted to try and find the answer. It was likely not going to make her happy. "I have no choice now but to go for the holo emitter, sorry if this hurts you Shinji," she cringed as she opened the application and generated her two way link with Shinji.

What she saw left her numb. She saw him handcuffed to a bed, his shirt pulled up but his pants still on. Thankfully nobody else was in the room, "Oh God, Shinji, what happened?" she asked after catching a full sight of his haggard face.

Rolling his head back against the pillow, Shinji let out a sharp victory cry, "Oh thank goodness you're hear Washu-san. A girl attacked Rei at the shop and threatened to kill her if I didn't come with her. She knocked me out before I could hit her, and has me trapped." But now that Washu was back, she would have a plan right? Washu kept saying how much of a genius she was, she would clearly have a solution.

"Fuck," was all Washu said initially and that was saying something. Washu didn't care for swear words, but nothing else really fit at the moment. She was powerless to help him, not with so much else depending on her actions. "Shinji…I'm sorry but you'll have to come up with something yourself. Hild has been taken out and I don't know how to contact Morrigan."

A weak laugh left his lips, "You're kidding right, Washu-san? You keep telling me how you can do anything or think of a way out of any tight spot…and you don't have anything for me?" His voice was pleading, but he fought to keep from panicking. If Washu didn't have an answer for him…he might have to do something he really didn't want to. "You're kidding right?"

Her brain working overtime for a way to help Shinji, but every time came to the same dead end. "Shinji, we talked about this before and I think that time has come. When however grabbed you comes back…you'll have to let her do what she wants with you, but insist on being in control. Once you've…done the deed a few times…she'll likely be so overcome by the virus she'll listen to anything you say. Once she frees you, you know what to do." A small part of the genius felt dead inside at basically giving Shinji no option but to throw away his innocence on some harlot.

That's what Shinji was afraid she'd say, and he had come to close to the same conclusion himself. While he didn't know a good hard nookie would set the women into a virus induced coma of bliss, he had planned on using the events to free himself. Closing his eyes and swallowing hard, he set his resolve. It was better to bite the bullet once than be forever trapped by these women. "Washu…would you not watch when it comes time?"

A single tear tracked down Washu's face. He was going to do it, as much as she could tell he didn't want to, he was willing to make that sacrifice. "Go easy on her tiger…but not to easy," the joke didn't make either of them laugh. "I'll keep thinking about something, but it's not likely. I'll keep in touch ok?" She felt ashamed, she was supposed to be a damn Goddess and here she was sitting far away from her cherished sisters fiancé was about to be raped.

"I'll contact you once I get free…but I'd like to be alone now…if you don't mind or can't think of anything else," Shinji's strength of will was all that kept him from breaking down. He didn't want his first time to be like this, but it was for the greater good.

X- Oddly dark for this story but still true –X

Flying at a modest height over the towering skyscrapers, Ryo-Oki meowed cutely as she sought her carrot provider. The typically furry creature, now in her weapon of mass destruction form, was just as anxious to find Shinji as the goddess inside her was. But the whole city was against them, and after the events in the apartment the day before, Sasami wasn't in a good mood. "Mya?"

"I'm fine now Ryo-Oki, I just think I should have handled Ayanami-san better," Sasami in her full glory stood solemnly. With Tsunami's powers flowing through her, Sasami's body aged to properly show the splendorous body of her other half. Tsunami and she had merged fully, both one and at the same time separate. "She is my friend and I know she loves my beloved almost as much as I do…maybe I should have shared."

Had Sasami relented in her 'one party system' for who had access to Shinji's secret ballot, the two of them could right now be letting Shinji pole the system. And Ryo-Oki knew that…and had secretly been perfecting her humanoid form. Tenchi had liked how she looked as a human and the warship had to admit she was well in heat right now. Sensing a greater power outside her hull, Ryo-Oki mya'd in distress and opened out an external view.

"Kos-Mos," Sasami gasped as she saw the biggest of the threats against her hovering right in front of her path. "Ryo-Oki open a channel to the outside…it seems my beloved's protector is standing in our way." With the full power of Tsunami at her disposal, Kos-Mos wasn't a big threat, but something about the android still made Sasami pause and ponder if fighting was a good thing. "Move aside Kos-Mos, I know where my beloved is and I will reclaim him." The single plant had been sending Sasami regular updates on Shinji's status, and thankfully hadn't said that the bitch was back.

Hovering above the charred remains of another failed lead, Kos-Mos analyzed every subtle tone Sasami said. "Analyzing vehicle. Classification Cabbit. Danger level high. Passengers Sasami Jurai, classification diplomat, danger level nil." Transforming her arm into her R-Buster, she fired a shot at Ryo-Oki's forward lazar bay. "Review of statements indicates information on status of master. Provide me with said details or be destroyed."

"Well that went well, you ok Ryo-Oki?" Sasami asked after picking herself off the floor. She had expected a little hostility from Kos-Mos, not to have the damn thing open fire almost instantly and effectively break Ryo-Oki's forward weapon system. Hearing the cabbit mew in pain but say she wasn't that hurt, Sasami's resolve hardened. Opening the channel again, "I said move out of my way or I'll have to hurt you. Ikari-sama is not going to be jacking into your data port and getting tetanus." Seeing nothing on the screen however, "Wait where did she go?"

Pressing the barrel of her cannon against Sasami's back, Kos-Mos opted for the direct approach. "Repeat, you will give me the location of master or you will be terminated." Adding a little umph, Kos-Mos politely knocked Sasami to the ground and leveled her gun at the princess's face. "You have five seconds to comply."

"Oh…thanks Ryo-Oki for keeping me posted," Sasami glowered at the floating crystal that represented her furry friend. To be fair however, Ryo-Oki was dealing with having her face blasted so keeping track of the tiny blue humanoid was hard. "If you kill me you won't get the information anyway. And that means the girl that has his chained to a bed will get him, and do horrible things to him, and it would be your fault." Only Sasami could do those things with her husband, and the whips were already moistened and ready to go. The S&M gear her sister gave her for a birthday present before being trapped with Tenchi, was all prepped and ready.

Kos-Mos's blue eye went wide in shock while the red could be seen processing data as she spoke. "Report of master's capture matches with reports of Ami Muzino. Green capture verified. 90% chance of master having sexual encounter if left in care, 75% chance of eventual death. 100% chance of Sasami finding and freeing before…" The following few seconds were an amalgam of pain for the furry spaceship as Kos-Mos proceeded to have what equates to a temper tantrum. R-Scything her way out of the spaceship, leaving the furry ball in a bit of pain, Kos-Mos sped off as 'master safety' algorithms took over and forced her action. Her blue eye was showing extreme sadness.

As the smoke cleared, "Ouch…well it worked in the end. You still good to fly?" Sasami asked while laying on her back. The force of Kos-Mos's exit more than enough to knock a few screws loose in Sasami's head. "Logic is a bad thing if the facts don't equate to something you agree with." But it meant she could get Shinji and spend a few decades in space sans clothing.

Rattled and nursing her wounds, a myriad of crystals started repairing her vitals systems, Ryo-Oki mya'd out she was good to go and continued flying at a slower pace towards the apartment. Ryo-Oki wasn't liking what she was thinking, but she admitted she'd have to put Sasami to sleep for awhile and get her own run at the carrot of her carrot giver. Not that Ryo-Oki was going to tell Sasami this of course.

X- Coding…it's a bitch – X

Attim was making no headway in her search. After Kos-Mos's announcement that Shinji was north of her position she only found a destroyed adult book store. She had watched when the teenagers bandaged Rei and lead her off, but not without overhearing that Shinji had been captured by one of the Greens. Now deep into Green territory, she had found nothing and heard even less. Of the few scouts she found and beat, none of them knew who had Shinji or where they were.

Hiding in the front grill of a car, Attim listened to who appeared to be the Green leader talking to some of her subordinates. "Something about that one with the eye-patch…" Attim's eyes narrowed as she watched Shimei. _She seems nervous and anxious and keeps looking back this way. _Maybe because she was the Red's spy, but something was just rubbing Attim the wrong way about how the girl was acting.

"Alright, we wait until the Whites make there move and we take over the school. Its clear that they're leaking this attack so they hope we go to Nerv for some reason. We'll cut off there escape routes," Hakufu let out a mighty laugh. While she was duped by the plan, her advisory council had awakened her to the truth. It didn't matter to her who won, Red or White, "Just find out which one of us has that boy and have him brought to me. I'm going to enjoy him before we start sharing." Being beaten had triggered a switch in the typically airheaded girls mind…and that tripped the desire switch.

With a sharp salute, Shimei shouted in agreement, "I'll go looking for who has him. I'll report back to you later." First would be going back to the apartment for at least an hour of product testing, and then she'd call Misato to let her know the Green's plan. Shimei was going to throw in with the Red's. Something about the Green's was screaming failure. A powerbase centered on fighting and not logic would fail in the end. Running off towards the apartment, she would stop and check for anybody following her. "I keep thinking somebody is…" but she never saw anybody following.

Attim was very good at her job.

Rapping lightly on the door, Shimei happily called, "I'm back Lover, hope you're all hot and bothered. I know I am." Throwing open the door, she was happy to see nothing had changed since she left, save Shinji was now sleeping. "Guess being unable to move must have been boring. I'll feed you in a little bit, but first I want to feed myself." Nimbly tossing off her top she sauntered over to the bed. "Nobody is in this building so we can make all the noise we want."

Letting out a yelp as Shimei woke him up by touching something he rather wished she hadn't, Shinji's eyes bulged. "You're back…" he didn't know what else to say. Again captivated by her beauty, Shinji wasn't really all too eager to cross the threshold into adulthood against his wishes. "W-what time is it?" he'd have to find out where he was and where the nearest vent was for his escape, but if it was to early it wouldn't matter.

Unfastening her skirt, letting it fall to the ground, the trained martial artist straddled her toy. "Just about noon," she didn't mind telling him as she lay on top of him, letting the heat from his chest permeate her body. "You're hot as a fire, Love," she murmured and licked his chest through his shirt. "Tasty too."

Willing himself not to react to the stimuli, Shinji focused everything on the escape plan. "Will you at least tell me your name before you…before we…" Shinji couldn't even say it. If he was going to have relations with this woman, he at least wanted to know her name. "I'm Shinji Ikari," he prompted.

"You can call me either Love or Shimei," she propped herself up, her hands on his chest she massaged the flesh beneath her hands. Her brain was on fire as the virus fuelled her libido to impossible heights. Just breathing in the male musk was enough to get her fire going. "Maybe I'll make it two hours before calling in to Misato." Catching sight of Shinji's reaction to the name, "You know her? Strange lady. Promised me a good chunk of time with you for betraying Hakufu…best deal I ever made." Sure she promised not to do what she was about to until AFTER Misato had her way, but to hell with that.

A tiny click indicated Attim's entrance as she picked the lock. "You shouldn't play with things that don't belong to you, little girl. And I do believe that is my property," Attim strolled purposefully into the room and let the thermoptic camouflage fall. It didn't bother her now to be seen in all her natural glory before Shinji as it had when they bathed in the spring. "Get off him now."

"I was hoping for a quick fight before I fucked him silly," Shimei licked her chops and vaulted off Shinji. "That Ayanami girl wasn't a threat, but you look to be a step higher," glancing back at her prone boytoy, "I'll finish with her and then give you my full attention." Blowing Shinji a kiss, Shimei felt that rush of unbridled joy flow through her. Combat was a drug and she was high on it.

Blocking the first punch that her teenage opponent threw, Attim's grim expression softened into one of mirth. "You made a very bad mistake child," the blow was as soft as the wind generated by a butterfly. Standing straight up, dropping her defensive stance, "I'll give you the first one for free," she pointed to her chin.

"Your funeral bitch," Shimei announced and unleashed the fury. Blow upon blow rained down on the ebony haired vision of carnal delight. "DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE," Shimei chanted as she bounced Attim's body around like a ping pong ball in a room full of cats. Her body sweating and soar as she stopped her steady onslaught, she saw her opponents head craned back and staring up at the ceiling. "Had enough?"

"Is that all you have?" Attim's tone was bored. Straighten her gaze, "Oh you're done, well let me show you what I can do." One punch to the stomach later, Shimei was lodged ass first in the wall. "Nobody takes what is mine, and Shinji is mine! He is my savior! He is the only reason I live! He is my everything! And I will not let some haughty little girl come and take what doesn't belong to her," cracking her knuckles Attim closed in on her target as the stunned and gasping martial artist tried to free herself from her drywall imprisonment.

Shinji watched it all and drank it all in, he had no idea what Attim was talking about, but as she spoke it triggered something in him. He could see it now, and wondered how he could ever have missed it before. "The little girl…Attim is…she is THAT girl," before he could say anything else a hand clasped over his mouth.

"Stay silent, I'll get you out of here and then run for the door," Morrigan finally got a trace on Shinji as she flew around the city. Hearing his silent plea for help in her head like a gong, she knew exactly where he was. She had to wait for the right time to act or Attim would have sensed her. Sending a few blades at the chains, she quickly liberated the one she gave her soul to. "Come quickly while she's distracted," gathering the boy in her arms she held him like a husband carrying his wife over the threshold and ran.

Grabbing onto Morrigan as if he life depended on it, Shinji hugged her fiercely. "I knew you'd come for me Morrigan," his arms were steel. Had Morrigan wanted to pry him off she wouldn't have been able to, not that she wanted the man she loved to ever let go. "What do we do now?" he asked knowing that Morrigan wasn't like the others, at least not now.

Breaking into a flight, Shinji still held protectively to her chest, Morrigan flew as fast as she could towards what she hoped was safety. "We hide until we can't hide anymore," spending time alone with this mortal would be great if under other circumstances. But she was just glad she had been in time. She knew he might never love her as she did him, but that didn't matter. All that mattered was his life and happiness, and she was going to see to it. "Hold on tight my boy, we're going to put some distance between us and them" she bellowed and followed with a laugh as the wind rippled through her hair and the mortal hung on deliciously tight.

X- And Morrigan with the save!!! –X

Notes

Still a day and a half left till the cure is developed a lot can happen in that time! And you'll be seeing more people actually working in groups and not for solo interests soon. Hope ya liked this one despite the bit darker tone.

Ja mata

Zentrodie


	37. When like minds meet

Standard disclaimer

Sorry for the delay last week, but Halloween caught me off guard and I didn't have time to write. Then I find out I have to go to a baptism the NEXT Sunday so I'm trying the whole 'write during the week' thing that I've been meaning to do…so this chap might seem a bit off.

X-X

What We Make of It

Chapter 37 – Rising Storm

Or

Who knew cabbits could be stealthy

Slowing her speed to allow the sole occupant of Succcubi-Air license to speak, Morrigan shifted her parcel. "So are you going to tell me why this whole city is one big powder keg of lust? Or is it just run off from that little contest from a few weeks back?" Flapping her head wings, Morrigan hoped to cool her face which for some reason was burning hot. It wasn't the first time, but it was the most pronounced heat flash she'd felt in a long time. Hild had explained how somehow she was part of Shinji as he was part of her now, due to the sharing of such large levels of blood.

Feeling slightly embarrassed at being carried like an infant in Morrigan's arms, Shinji did his best to not fidget or blush. "It's kind of complicated, and no it wasn't due to the pageant." Closing his eyes, Shinji clung to Morrigan tighter, not out of fear but out of relief. "And before I get into that, I really want to thank you for saving me back there Morrigan-san."

"It's what I'm hear for hun," Morrigan winked at her captive human. Hild had instructed her clearly that Shinji's safety was paramount, and she agreed. How she got to him before Hild though was something Morrigan was dreading to know the answer too. Sensing the core of Shinji resonating with her own, Morrigan felt at such peace that a war could have broken out below her and she's just wave at it and smile. "So, what has the most eligible bachelor of Toyko-3 chained to a bed with women fighting over him?" she asked as she banked hard right to avoid a skyscraper.

Popping up over Shinji's right shoulder, Washu's halo-emitter gave the image of one exstatic Goddess of Technology. "About time you showed up Bathead," the now child Washu chimed in evilly. "As for the city, it's another of my pupil's mistakes gone horribly wrong," she confessed. Ritsuko was going to have to turn in her scientist card and replace it with 'mad scientist' if she kept causing near world-ending calamities.

The following twenty seconds seared both Shinji and Morrigan's minds with near life ending panic. In shock over the sudden appearance of a very happy floating head, Morrigan spilled her rider. Plummeting to his demise, Shinji simply looked up at the emerald tresses and pink leggings of his ride flying down at him as he reached up for her. Foregoing the hand, Morrigan wrapped an arm around Shinji's chest and pulled and held his back to her chest.

"Oops, sorry about that," Washu apologized after the abstract terror left Shinji's face and Morrigan's downgraded from murderous to just enraged. Catching an eyeful of Morrigan squeezing Shinji like a human sized teddy bear, the genius put that tidbit of info away for future study. "As I was saying before you nearly killed my soon-to-be in-law, a virus has gotten let lose in the city's water supply," she cleared her throat as Shinji's face became emblazoned. _Guess he's finally feeling what those two airbags are. _Washu hoped that Shinji's savior didn't turn teams.

Rubbing the water from his eyes as the wind brought him to tears, Shinji did his best to ignore the sensation of oneness that he felt. Something about being close to Morrigan made him feel more than complete, it was a zen like state of being how he should be. "Like Washu said, whatever got into the water has made the women…wanting so to speak." It was to hard for the timid yet heroic boy to say 'sex crazed maniacs.'

Turning to the floating face, "Sorry hun, but can you explain what he just said in more upfront terms?" Morrigan pleaded. All she knew was all the men were gone, the women were forming into warring factions, and she caught the tasty crumpet Attim flogging a woman that tried having sex with Shinji who very much looked ready to swallow his own tongue.

Washu, not having Shinji's problems said, "They want to find a man and ride him like a dime-store pony." Seriously, Washu thought, once Shinji finally did get some action or realized how many women actually cared about him, he'd likely never wear pants again. "What you have in your hands is the only hope for those women getting their minds back," Washu could see the reasonable face of disbelief screaming from Morrigan.

Rocking Shinji back and forth, making his feat dangle behind them, Morrigan was glad she got a giggle from him. "So you're telling me that roaming the city below me is a horde of women that want to find a man, any man, and literally screw them to death. And Shin-baby here is the only person capable of turning them back into there prude selves?" Kissing Shinji's cheek playfully, "You really are one in a million hun."

His palm felt at the warm and wet impression Morrigan's lips left, "What do you mean, I'm just doing what anybody else in my position would." Clearly no man would let women just have him over and over again, in any way/time/place he or they wanted…that was sheer lunacy…right? Nodding to his own internal logic, Shinji caught Morrigan and Washu giving him a queer eye, "What?"

Eyes closed, Washu just nodded, "You are right, he is more likely one in infinity. Anyway we have to keep him out of those women's hands until late tomorrow afternoon at the earliest. Deep in the bowls of Nerv a vaccine is being created that only Shinji has the know how to operate. Well I do too, but I can't leave my post here to do it." It was a real bitch, but if Washu let even one person out or into the city the virus would become exposed and women everywhere would be at risk.

"So where do I come in?" Morrigan asked as she glided on her luxurious jet black wings. She didn't like the sound of anything Washu or Shinji had been saying, but it certainly did make sense given all she'd seen. While she did love Shinji, it was due to his awakening her soul to more than just pain and lust. So a fighter like the eye-patch honey wouldn't likely go for him, but that wasn't the scene she interrupted. "Want me to kill a few dozen of those people so Shin-baby can get to whatever he needs?"

"NO!" Shinji expounded at the mere thought of killing unfortunates. "I just have to stay hidden until tomorrow. Then I'll crawl through an auxiliary power junction into Nerv and take care of things." What he'd do after the cure was administered and the women came to there senses wasn't part of the plan, but he could hope to lock a few doors. "Oh and Washu-chan said something about Mama-Hild being around or something," Shinji's heart warmed at the idea of having an actual parent, even if it was a demonic beast of almost limitless power.

Circling around Shinji's head, Washu scratched at her cheek, "Yeah about Hild…You see according to her, after she bound Asuka with some sort of spell her daughter played a trick on her. Hild's been infected," noticing Shinji and Morrigan turning a shade of white that would have made Ayanami jealous, she waved her arms frantically. "No worries, she got to me in time to be put in stasis. You won't have to worry about the CEO of hell trying to give you an Oedipus complex. You'll just not have her help."

"Well at least she got that step-daughter of hers out of the way, all I'll have to worry about is that freak with the blue hair that nearly killed me before," Morrigan had yet to have an encounter with Kos-Mos that didn't end in pain. "I didn't know her royal pain-in-the-ass had such a loyal and powerful servant."

Laughing nervously Shinji shifted uncomfortably against Morrigan…which caused the succubus to feel rather good. "Actually, Kos-Mos is technically my servant. She fell on me when I first came to town and…well I kissed her and she woke up calling me Master," Shinji hated how much like slavery that sounded but it was the truth. Sensing Morrigan's grip on him becoming lax he yelped, "M-Morrigan-san I'm slipping!"

"Wow…I'm lucky to be alive!" Morrigan gasped as she reaffirmed her grasp. "When I did what I did to you, anything with the Master/Slave program should have continued to attack until I was dead!" The warmth in her chest increased in pitch, and Morrigan knew why she was alive. The mortal, so weak and fragile, had spared her life even then. "Anyway, while you're as light as a baby hun, I think we should find a place to hole up rather than being a flashing neon sign to everybody on the street."

Typing a few commands into her console, Washu grinned a fiendishly, "Go three blocks north and one south. You'll find an old clinic that should treat you fine…assuming you don't accidentally drink the water on purpose," Washu glared at Morrigan. The great will of the cosmos allowed Morrigan to realize Washu could tell her inner feelings, even if she didn't act on them and was giving the succubus a warning. Morrigan headed the threat of anything that could take Hild on without losing body parts.

X- Surely nothing bad will happen to them right…right? –X

"If all goes as expected Sasami should be convincing Washu in roughly…"Misato stopped mid sentence as the door to her office burst open. "Oh, this is unexpected," the leader of the Red's announced as she got out of her chair and headed towards her door with her inner council in tow. "Attim, you should be leading the tactical forces behind the Green lines right now, why are you here?"

Hiding her mouth behind her hand, Ritsuko's smile went unseen, "I told you she wasn't up to the challenge." The good doctor was desperate to find somebody in a worse standing than her to shift the growing negative karma. Her tracking software only found three men and two of them were so old that they were worthless and one was an infant. Maya was currently looking after the two year old Taro. "But she seems to be brining us a gift," she almost laughed.

Walking right up to her current leaders feet, Attim dropped her package at Misato's feet and knelt on one knee. "It turns out the Green that had apprehended the male was none other than our own little spy. I found her with him chained up in an abandoned apartment." Attim averted her eyes from Misato in shame. She had let her own personal feelings cloud her judgment from seeing the bigger picture. Had she just taken Shinji instead of fighting Shimei, he would be in her clutches already.

Adjusting Shimei's head as the defeated Green started to rouse from her fist induced nap. "Ah, truly unexpected indeed," Misato turned to Shion and nodded. "Add her name to the assault squad list. If she refuses to cooperate we'll simply throw her in the brig." Standing up and dusting her hands, Misato was seething under the veneer of control. One of her hand picked spies had what she wanted and tried to take it! Hearing of Shinji's capture made her move several pieces of her plan ahead of schedule, and it was due to her own mole!

Shocked, Attim quickly got to her feet and protested, "You're just going to switch her detachment? She had the primary target on her bed! She almost claimed him before you could. And who is to say she'd ever actually turn him over!" Attim was high on the pecking order and while she wouldn't abide by Shimei having a turn, she knew Misato was somebody who cared deeply about him. "Shouldn't you lock her up and throw the key away?"

"You mistake me, Attim, you'd do best not to question the schedule," Misato said coolly as she headed back to her desk and pulled out a phone. "The assault squad is the for front of our defense against the advancing Green platoon," she pulled out a notebook and checked off another box. "I knew Ayanami would try this, but I never suspected she'd be deposed from her place in power. I'll have to make some alterations."

Helping Shimei up on shaky legs, Shion steadied the newest likely recruit to the defense squad. "Katsuragi-san has planned almost all of this Attim. Those who are part of the assault squad however, are people that have attempted to subvert or broke away from her plan." As much as it pained her to admit, Shion was almost a part of it until she finished her tracking device coded on Kos-Mos's GPS. Why Misato wanted to know where Kos-Mos was at all times, Shion didn't know or care, all she did care was it got her off the front lines.

"What…where am I?" Shimei sputtered out after Shion waved smelling salts under her nose. Leaping out of the tomboyish tech's arms, the trained martial artist dropped into a guarded position. "BITCH you interrupted me when I was about to get a piece of the biggest…" The gunshot in the tiny room cut off Shimei's retort.

Blowing the smoke away from the barrel of her gun, Misato calmly laid the instrument of death back down. "Now that you've calmed down, Shimei, I will inform you of a few things you might not have known. Urd you can come out now too," Misato called out to the open air. Waiting for the small television on her desk to flash to life and the bronze goddess of carnal desire to teleport through it, Misato cleared her throat. "You are being given the opportunity to make up for your grievous error. Join my assault squad and defend Nerv's main entrance from the upcoming Green attack."

"Why should I help you against my own side, you sent you own hench-wench after me already!" Shimei spat out in Attim's direction. No stranger to defeat, Shimei was however at a total loss for the utter and complete annihilation she felt at Attim's behest. "I might as well just tell Hakufu that you know she's coming and watch the fireworks."

Strolling up beside the wobbling beauty, Urd sloshed up behind the fighter and held her shoulders gently. "You have no idea what is going on inside that woman's head. I do and that's why I signed up to be part of her little attack force," Urd cooed. Having failed utterly to get Hild on the Red's side as she promised, Urd was given the same option Shimei was. Side with Misato on the attack squad or beat the street and go solo. Urd was tempted to just whisk off on her own until she gleamed a part of Misato's plans. She quickly relented. "Being apart of Alpha Squad does have certain benefits too. We are second in line under the command squad for a man," Urd added.

Rising her eyebrow, Shimei shrugged off Urd's feather light embrace and purposefully strolled over to Misato's desk where a waiting badge lay. "So I fight for you I get a man of my own or I get a short cut in line?" After seeing what Gendo's genetic manipulation did to Shinji, Shimei didn't mind waiting in line for the ride…it was a very long ride. "And is it any man we get?"

Still overwhelmed at how easily Misato was letting a traitor get, Attim snagged the badge off the obsidian desk. "She was going to take Shinji from you…the only primary target…and now you're just letting her take the fast pass to any man that we get?" Attim was ready to snap the impetuous spy's neck, not give her a damn medal! In fact, one of her hands had unconsciously grasped and Shimei's collar and was holding the poor girl off the ground by a good foot.

"Drop her Attim or you'll lose your place as third," Misato said levelly as she watched the scene play out. "Do it now and I won't ask why or how the primary target eluded your grasp. And if I recall correctly, you said he was bound to her bed. Would mean he shouldn't have escaped." Misato wasn't ready for end game yet. No, that took place right here at Nerv, she had it all planned out, and in the end it would be Attim that Misato had to get past to claim what was hers.

Knowing damn well she should have easily captured Shinji rather than try and see how many walls she could break with Shimei's shapely rump, Attim dropped the spy and chucked the badge at her. "I'm going back into Green territory and when I find Morrigan I'm going to ripe those damn wings off!" Attim stopped her four inch heel into the ground and left a divot.

Calling out as she watched Shimei attach her badge, "You better hurry if you intend to get the primary target from Morrigan." Misato smiled behind her bridged hands. "She's going to be getting a visitor very quickly in the form of a very anxious fiancé." Asuka's ward should be coming off shortly after that…yes…Misato's plan was almost perfect.

X- Misato verses Kira…any bets? –X

Laying on his back, taking in large gasping breaths, Shinji smiled broadly. "I told you I wouldn't be much of a challenge for you," he gasped out between ragged breaths. His body ached, but it was a good ache, and he was covered in perspiration. With nothing to do but talk and play cards, thanks to a discarded pack in the fertility clinic's waiting room, the conversation jumped around quickly. For the first hour, both Shinji and Morrigan quickly realized that they had a great deal in common, and spent a great deal of time discussing the finer points of Baroque music.

"You improved a lot for such a short period, hun. So I wouldn't be to hard on yourself. I might not look it, but I was made for that type of abuse," Morrigan barked out jovially as she fanned herself with her head wings. Once Shinji mentioned he had been training with Attim as a result of her winning the pageant, Morrigan wanted a spar. She played and toyed with him, subtly, never giving the impression that her holds were more to feel him rather than slam his back against a couch…which she did several times.

Flying around the two ex-combatants Washu interjected, "Are you two done flirting now, or did you want to have another round sans clothing Morrigan-kun?" The petit scientist had been irate the moment Morrigan suggested Shinji waste precious energy indulging in a minor scuffle. She had only relented when Shinji said it would do him good to get some exercise and hone his abilities in case he get cornered without assistance. Washu still didn't like it, Shinji was supposed to make a legion of super children with Sasami damn it!

Sputtering and lurching forward, Shinji coughed hoarsely as Morrigan rubbed his back supportively. "We were just sparring Washu-chan, and you know it. Don't tease me so much," Shinji quickly defended Morrigan without guessing Washu was spot on. Reaching out for a bottle of water next to one of the waiting room chairs, "Any news about what is going on outside?" he asked and then took a big drink. As he drank he couldn't help but notice a small window plant was practically dancing.

Tugging on the lining of her form fitting top, Morrigan hoped she'd cool down quickly. "Yeah my dear Crab-san, how are things outside. You have been watching for that and not wasting your time watching us right?" It was to enticing to jab the little woman on the other side of the screen for Morrigan to pass up. So many people feared somebody would score points with her cherished mortal that it made Morrigan laugh inside. They were all to worried about there own happiness than his, a childish love.

Blinking rapidly as the tables expertly turned on her, Washu quickly hammered a few commands into her console. She had been so worried Morrigan would swoop in as the valiant savior and steal Shinji from Sasami that she totally lost track of what she should have been doing. "Everything is fine, who do you take me for…that Katsuragi woman?" Washu blindly said before seeing anything.

"Misato is a lot smarter than people give her credit for," Shinji quickly spouted off. Tossing his bottle towards a recycle bin, it hit the side and fell in with an empty sputter, Shinji stood up and stretched his back. "Ok, is it me or is that plant moving far too much for it to be capable of?"

Joining Shinji at the near ecstatic pansy, Morrigan leaned over and gently grabbed onto the stem. Expecting it to stop moving, Morrigan gasped when the tiny flower continued to move and said, "You're right, hun, this is something that isn't right." Closing her eyes and sensing out for anything out of the ordinary, the succubus nearly fell over once she felt it. "Crabby I think you missed something," Morrigan yelled, grabbed Shinji's hand, and pulled the boy down to the ground.

Watching the antics of, in Washu's eyes, the highly lustful creature's actions, the scientist scoffed. "Oh nothing you're just acting on your own impulse…es…oh crap Sasami's there," Washu groaned as Ryo-Oki's signature appeared on her screen as big as life and twice as cute. "Sorry, my bad…again," she cringed as both Shinji and Morrigan gave her a baleful eye.

Before Morrigan could say 'bullshit' the front of the clinic exploded as Ryo-Oki opted for the direct approach. It had worked for Kos-Mos earlier, so she thought it might work for her as well. Coughing demurely as she wafted the dust out of her face, Sasami carefully stepped over the rubble, "Next time use a lower setting, Ryo-Oki, I can't see a thing in here!" The warship mya'd out an apology.

Her wing still protectively over Shinji, Morrigan sized up the newcomer, "So care to explain how she found us?" She called out blindly expecting the damn red haired freak…damn she hated red heads…to hear and answer. With the entire wall destroyed it would be easy for Shinji to escape if she distracted the oddly familiar yet painfully more attractive than her woman.

"Sasami is the physical avatar of Tsunami, Goddess of Nature, any plant can report to her and tell her what it knows," Washu said sheepishly. Forgetting a vital piece of info wasn't really Washu's thing, and yet she had for such a long time. "And if you're thinking what I hope you are, unless those breasts of yours took all the matter your brain was supposed to have, you're right. You can keep her attention and he can make a break for it."

His fingers gingerly grabbed Morrigan's wing, Shinji tried to protest, "I won't keep having people protect me! It's not fair for you Morrigan-san, you might get hurt over this." He just felt so powerless watching people he knew and cared for fighting to keep him safe and he did nothing. "At least let me help you!"

While she appreciated the sentiment more than words could convey, demons didn't get much care, Morrigan nodded at Washu. "Sorry hun, but you'd just be a liability, and you have much more important things to worry about. I'll meet up with you later with this tiny child's help," Morrigan nodded at the now fuming Washu. Blowing Shinji a kiss, she scooped him up in her wing and flung him towards Sasami like a bullet.

It all went exactly as Morrigan pleaded to all the nefarious forces it would.

Sasami suspected the ploy and caught her fiancé with open arms, "Shinji-sama! Together you and me can leave this planet!" She moved in to kiss her beloved, her hormones fully under the virus's sway making thought impossible. Distracted by the building desire to strip naked and use one of the rooms in the fertility clinic as they were intended, Sasami didn't see Washu's screen until it popped in between her and Shinji's face.

"SASAMI WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?" Washu screamed knowing what and why Sasami was red in the face and a hand dangling right above Shinji's left buttocks. Her scream and known face acted as another distraction.

Her head jerking back, moments away from inspecting Shinji's tonsils with her tongue, Sasami's eyes fluttered. "Washu-chan, what are you doing here? Why haven't you been helping me get Shin-chan and leave this dreadful planet?" She wouldn't share with her genius friend, but that wasn't expected. As she attempted to talk Washu into moving, she felt a sudden lurch around her stomach. Morrigan and snuck around her, grabbed her and was currently administering a suplex. In an effort to avoid hurting the only male she'd let touch her, Sasami let go of her projectile in mid decent and sent the boy flying out the front door.

Screaming out in unholy terror as only one that was beyond good and evil could, Shinji gracefully face planted in the plaster and wooden rubble and rolled to the street. "I really need to learn how to take a fall better," he mumbled as his vision swam and jostled around. A frantic meow and a sudden eclipse reminded the boy that Sasami wasn't alone. "Sorry," was all he said before he sprinted down the street, leaving Ryo-Oki overwhelmed with options. As Sasami's loyal servant she wanted to help in the battle, while her virus infused processor wanted to get the carrot providers goodies.

Listening to the scuffle fade as he ran, Washu oddly absent, Shinji briefly noticed Usagi Tsukino as he rounded a corner. "I don't think she saw me…I hope she didn't," he huffed out. Crawling into an open sewer grate, Shinji took the underground. Unfortunately for him, Usagi did notice him and sent one of her two spies after him. Luna was on his tail, and Diana was dispatched to get the outers to meet up with and capture the prey.

As for Usagi and her loyal Inner Senshi, they had a meeting with the leader of the Green's. Unlike Rei, Usagi knew that fighting the others would only lead to more problems. She had hammered out an agreement with the Green's to join forces and was on her way to seal the deal. Smiling brightly, Usagi could only wonder how quickly the gymnasium would fill with the captured males…and maybe just maybe that Ikari boy would be sequestered for her and her loyal court's use only.

X- Usagi is about peace and love…and a peace of love –X

Pulling her computers network cable out from the cable line, Ruri grimaced. "It appears that only a small detachment of Greens are moving on Nerv. And to make matters worse it seems Usagi and her friends of dubious sexual orientation are meeting with the leaders of the Green's." Fluffing her hair back to its normal pigtailed glory, the cap she used when hacking smushed it, Ruri slid her backup laptop back in her backpack.

Handing Rei a small lettuce sandwich, Nodoka appeared baffled, "Doesn't this mean we're in for a lot of trouble?" Following the twin pale dynamos through the city, the timid bookworm tried to piece together Rei's master plan as best she could. What little she could decipher was dependant on the factions fighting one another. "If Usagi is making peace, won't that prevent your plan?"

Taking a large bite out of the offered lettuce on rye with mayo, Rei took a moment to stare at her hand. For a brief moment she wondered if the mayo ever got on her, would she be able to see it. After that fanciful moment passed, Rei took site of an approaching woman and fired, "No, they only need to be suspicious of one another to make my plan work. Katsuragi's arrogance will be her downfall, and then her plan will serve my needs." Like Misato, Rei's plans ended the same way just it was Attim versus her in the bowels of Nerv for the honor of riding the wild stallion off into the sunset. Only the stallion was Shinji and the sunset was carnal bliss.

Shimming down the telephone poll, Ruri thanked the gods for providing her gloves to keep her hands splinter free. Clapping her hands to rid them of dust and wood pulp, "Why did you shoot Chiyo-sensei? She wasn't affiliated with any faction." Ruri didn't mind Rei's extensities at all, namely because Ruri had an equal number of them.

Reloading her dart gun Rei's features curled into a smug grin, "Up until this point, who has been the only person to use ammunition such as this?" Tossing Ruri back her side arm, Nodoka hadn't earned a weapon yet, Ruri didn't need to worry about her companion's ability to comprehend. Ayanami suspected that Ruri was only a mere fraction of a brain cell below her own cunning.

Just as Rei suspected, Ruri too smiled, "I see your point, very clever indeed. Should we start our sojourn into Green space? According to the chatter I received over the airwaves things are getting lively. Shimei, the woman that attacked you, has been found to be a Red spy and apprehended by M-Zack but not before losing your target." Ruri wanted a man, any man, but Rei was particular about Shinji. Ruri, having no reason to doubt her sister from another mother, just took it as good that Shinji would be the optimum for her as well.

"Um…sorry but I'm not following anything you two are saying. It's almost as if the two of you are talking some language twins teach each other," Nodoka was borderline terrified by the two. The way Rei and Ruri finished one another's sentences, looked similar, and apparently had the same taste in men screamed that the two were clones of one another. "And if this Ikari boy got away from the Green woman, doesn't that mean we can't find him?" They hadn't found one man so how could they find a particular one. Though the memory of him did make her heart flutter more than any nameless man.

Taking Rei's verbal cue, Ruri sighed and shouldered her backpack. "It is easy. First off, only Ikari has used stun darts on anybody. So if anybody finds the people Ayanami shoots, they will think he did it and follow that trail. Second, using her knowledge of the target I have been able to correct a few glaring errors in my tracking program. Using the new tracker, it indicates a 95% certainty that if alone, Ikari-kun is in the sewers near by where he escaped." Patting Rei's shoulder, "With the two of us working together we'll have him, but we need you to flush him out to us."

Nodding fiercely, Nodoka was starting to understand everything. The girls she was with were totally bat shit crazy, but effective. "I'll do what you say, it's the only way to get a man that would fit me," Nodoka's broken and frazzled nerves didn't do her sentiment justice. Terrified of most men, even the virus was having a problem overriding her normal programming. As the virus didn't force anything, just heighten the latent urges to insurmountable heights. But the boy that nearly seduced her…he was free of the fearful impulses the other men had.

Taking her second dart gun in hand, Rei looked at it and back at Nodoka. _She will likely try and use this on us when we capture him. She doesn't know we're immune so it isn't a threat. _Tossing the single load weapon and a bag of darts, "You are essential for my modified plan to work. Don't let us down." Rei didn't mean it, Ruri alone was enough to get the plan to work, and sharing with Ruri didn't seem so bad. However, Rei did hope against logical hope that Sasami would come around. They were friends after all, and Rei did have so precious few of those.

"The sun will be setting soon, we should get lights from a store so we can start checking the sewers," Ruri interrupted Nodoka's attempt at expressing her gratitude. With Rei in tow, Ruri felt invincible. A kindred spirit and a common goal, how could it fail?

X- Rei and Ruri separated at birth by different shows –X

Shaking Usagi's hand, Hakufu was surprised at the strength in the other girls grip. "Have to admit, I'd never thought this would be happening," Hakufu relented. The meeting with the new leader of the Whites had been eye opening for the fight first and think later girl. "We'll start pairing up my fighters with your girls as soon as possible," she added.

Her face exploding with happiness as only Usagi could, the future leader of Earth was ecstatic. It was a conversation only possible when two people with enough air in their heads to fill a blimp could have had. But in the end, Usagi had garnered peace between the White and Green factions. "I'm glad we were able to talk before either of us committed to many to the offensive at Nerv. I seriously wonder what Ayanami was thinking when she tricked both of our sides into that," Usagi released Hakufu's hand and reached for a sweet roll.

"Agreed, thankfully we learned of Shimei's being a lying traitors bitch sooner rather than later," Hakufu laughed jovially. Due to having been betrayed by Shimei before, Hakufu didn't really put much stock in it, nor did it diminish her feelings for the girl with the lovely eye patch. "So tell me more about the man you're tracking," that was the important part.

Giggling as she proceeded to inhale treat after treat, Usagi licked her fingers clean. "I have a little spy following one now, a boy my friends and I have been tracking for some time now actually." Usagi had plans to lure Shinji to her home to meet her family many times, but had yet to spring it on the unsuspecting boy. Now it was more of an issue of getting him home and not letting her mother have a piece. "She's trailing him and providing a few of my friends' details in catching up to him. Once they get to him, he'll be our peace offering to you."

As every male was to be shared, Hakufu was a little skeptical of the 'gift' but with the urge to get some building it was worth it. "Will we get first crack at this guy or will your friends be sampling the wares first?" It didn't matter, but the Greens weren't really patient people and would hate to have a tired male to exhausted to perform.

"I told them to bring him here as soon as they get him, but with how much I've heard of Ikari-kun they might be tempted," Usagi eyed the last cinnamon bun with a trickle of drool dribbling down her chin. "I was really wanted to rush after him myself, but our meeting took precedence. He's so elusive I doubt I could have gotten or even kept him by my self." Hence the combination of the Whites intelligence with the Greens strength any man tracked wouldn't have a prayer.

Sliding the plate over, handing her own sweet to Usagi, Hakufu could only nod and hum along. It had been there problem too. They could capture and hold anybody, but they couldn't find them for all their effort. With Usagi's girls leading the teams, and her girls to enforce the pain…it was going to be fan-fucking-tastic. "I wonder if this is the same boy that got the better of me, tell me about him?" From Usagi's earlier description the boy she was tracking sounded like the one Shimei had lost, and that was the one she ached to break in.

As Usagi finished the last of the treats, enough to put a normal person in a diabetic coma, Hakufu's stomach warmed. It was the same boy, and he was soon to be brought in. Today was going to be a good day, she'd get a man, gained a fighting force of brain and brawn, and met a girl very much like herself. And while the two girls continued to chat and pair up forces, Shinji sat covered in dirt, grim, and muck petting a black cat that curled up on his lap and purred loud enough physically move the creature.

X- its going to get a lot worse before it gets better –X

Author Notes

Well sides are changing and plans are moving, but so is time! Only one more full day till the cure is made! But…will he hold out! CAN HE HOLD OUT!

Sorry just a little Space Maddess reference for ya ^_^ Hope you liked this one, it was a little less on the comedy and more on planning/strategy but I tried to add what I could.

Ja mata

Zentrodie (zentrodie-dot-geo-at-yahoo-dot-com)


	38. When Senshi Strike

Standard Disclaimer

Well currently I'm raising two 9-week old kittens and trying to find them a home while they claw me to tiny pieces…and delay my time at the keyboard. Sorry about that but it can't be helped. This is going to be another of the write a scene per day thing to help me catch up so it might seem a tad dis conjoined.

X-X

What We Make of It

Chapter 38 – What happens in the sewers stays in the sewers

or –

Concessions were made

Leaning his head against the cool yet slimy walls of the sewer, Shinji let out a deep yawn. "You'd think with all the sleep I got today I wouldn't be tired at all," he chuckled lightly as he scratched behind the cat's ears. "But you're not saying anything are you little girl," he tapped her on the nose and she purred even louder. His eyes were on the sewer grate that gave him a marginal view of the street light and the occasional scout patrol.

"You know I could make a pussy joke but I don't think you'd find it funny at the moment," Washu chided as her screen materialized. She had been watching and screaming at Morrigan as the succubus fought her cherished half-sister. Now that the battle was over, Washu gave more service to the savior of female kind. "How you doing bucko?" she asked with blistering concern.

Shifting uncomfortably against the hard ground, Shinji really wanted the cat to climb out of his lap but the creature was practically glued to him. "I feel really tired, thanks to you I'm not hungry though, and to be honest the smell is making me sick," he hated complaining but given the circumstances he thought he was allowed at least one. "But at least I have a little company," he ran his finger under the cat's chin and it about died of happiness.

Taking a few readings of Shinji's chemical levels, Washu didn't like what she was seeing. "You're fine, Shinji, you just take what rest you can. You've been running on almost pure adrenaline for some time so it's natural," her ability to lie was never more necessary. Her figures were painting a bleak forecast for her favorite guinea pig. _At the rate he's pushing himself he'll burn out in less than twelve hours, and if he goes down in those tunnels he could die there without anyway of knowing where he was! _But if she told him, it would only exacerbate things He'd worry, that would increase stress, and that would make him crash sooner. "And I think you've forgotten something important my little test subject," her smile was genuine then.

Placing the cat on his shoulder, Shinji tittered as the cat's sandpaper tongue bathed his face. "Affectionate little thing isn't it?" he tried to keep it from licking his lips but it was hard to stop. "Never seen a cat act this way before, and what did I forget? OH! Morrigan! Is she alright? They didn't hurt each other did they?" he leaned his face away from the cat that was still aiming for the lips. With his fatigue setting in, he found it hard to concentrate for long. But forgetting about Morrigan and her saving of his life and his fiancé made him feel just a little like a bastard.

"Sasami took a few lumps to the head but that balloon chested demon didn't do any lasting harm to her. Right now she's flying your sweet overly affectionate bride-to-be up to my lab for treatment," Washu said in her professor voice. It was such a one-sided fight despite Tsunami's power that it made Washu wonder just how far Sasami had degraded due to the virus. "But that's not what I was referring to," Washu's emitter floated around Shinji and focused in on the cat. "Some animals, Ryo-Oki for example, aren't just simple creatures as you suspect. And they're infected as well," she played with the idea of telling Shinji the cat that was very well kissing him could turn into a human at any moment.

His body chilled and his jaw dropped…giving Luna a very easy target as she pounced him. "She's that cat Usagi and her friends had with them!" he picked the cat off his shoulder and held it at arm's length and she batted playfully at him. "So that means…and she was…that means…wait…I don't know what that means," Shinji said truthfully as he set Luna down who then jumped into his lap again.

"It means you don't have to worry about bestiality because that little liar can and would have turned into a human if you fell asleep," Washu said as she started laughing. After her jovial attitude changed, the crab-fetishist flew her screen at the wolf in cat's clothing and chased the little spy off into the darkness. "You need to be more careful, Shinji, not everything is as it seems," but even then what reason did Shinji have to suspect the affectionate cat was a descendant of the long dead Lunar kingdom.

Rubbing his lips, trying hopelessly to get the odd texture to be forgotten, Shinji leaned back to hard and cracked his head against the wall. "Ouch…guess I'm getting a little clumsy. Think you can keep a watch around here while I take a nap?" he knew Washu would but asking was always a better way of going about something than telling. Rubbing the lump on his head, his breath caught in his throat as a flashlight peered through the drain right above him, and agonizingly slowly drew away.

"Best keep your voice down, echoes down here will kill ya, and I don't think it's a good idea to sleep here Shinji," Washu couldn't let him sleep and it pained her to no end. He needed rest, long unbroken sleep, to even out his body chemistry before any real permanent damage could set in. "That cat has a master and she'll be leading them all right back to you. So you best…"

And then Washu's screen flickered and faded out as a mighty explosion filled the night sky. Asuka had broken through the weakened confines Hild had slapped on her, but hadn't reinforced due to her slight encounter with the virus. And when the princess of hell freed herself from her 'ever so loving' step-mothers bindings the first thing she did was blow up the building her vassal had been hiding in, and she liquefied the computer linking Washu to Shinji.

Sniffing the air, Asuka let out plumbs of smoke from her nostrils as her savage yet radiantly beautiful smile belied her fangs. "Close…so close…" she brutishly grunted before taking to the sky leaving a trail of fire behind her.

X- Asuka is ready to play! –X

With Sasami hoisted on her left shoulder and a cabbit in her left hand, Morrigan flew through the night sky. "For all your power cutie you sure don't know how to fight at all," she laughed as she readjusted the slipping princess's body. "But a good fight now and again is just what the doctor ordered," her body pulsated with adrenaline and made her feel wonderful.

Holding Ryo-Oki in front of her face, Morrigan's lips split into a wide grin. "And you…" she kissed the cabbit's nose, "are adorable." She tittered as the furry warship frantically pawed at its nose to clean off the demonic taint. "I told you I wasn't going to hurt her, didn't I?" she questioned the raving half-rabbit/half-cat.

Ryo-Oki sulked in her position of behind held by the scruff of her neck by the woman that beat her master. The fight had been one-sided, but Morrigan let it run on longer and longer so that it was exhaustion that finally did the blue haired carrot provider in. About to retaliate and save her beloved owner, Ryo-Oki wasn't expecting to find the green haired monster holding Sasami at blade point. Getting the ultimatum to stand down or watch her die, the cabbit had no reason to suspect it was all a lie.

High above the twinkling nightlights of the city, Morrigan relaxed her right arm and let the cabbit continue the flight from near her thigh. "Don't know why Crabs wants you, but I'll listen to her for now. If she could take Hild it's safer for me," she smoothed some of the more damaged pieces of Sasami's clothing to mask the damage she had done. That was when she saw the mile wide fireball take to the sky with a large trail behind it. "Oh…that defiantly isn't a good sign," reaffirming her grip, Morrigan sped off faster towards the floating onsen.

With her hair twirling behind her and a very pissed off and slightly bleeding cabbit screeching, Morrigan flew through one of the few remaining holes in the outer wall of Washu's orbital lab. Coming to a graceful stop, her head wings flapping to adjust her orientation, Morrigan chucked Ryo-Oki at the back of Washu's head. "Don't thank me or anything Crabs, I do love a little girl on girl anyway," Morrigan mocked the frazzled looking midget.

Her head bouncing from the furry yet ridged body colliding with it, Washu rubbed at the wound out of habit. "I don't have time for this! Something just happened in town and things are…what the hell do you think you're doing?" Washu asked finally turning to find Morrigan standing before her with Sasami still on her shoulder.

"Sampling the wears?" Morrigan asked innocently as she rubbed Sasami's rear end. Washu had said this girl was to be Shinji's wife, and Morrigan was just doing what a succubus thought best for a love interest. And that was making sure any potential mate wouldn't be broken in half, and was up to snuff. "She has a nice little tush on her, smooth silky skin, but I'm thinking she comes up short in the bust," Morrigan spun Sasami over and alternated between her chest and Washu's face.

A vein already bulging in her forehead, Washu wasn't in the mood for playing games. Diving at Morrigan, aiming to take Sasami from the succubus's hands, Washu missed her shot as Morrigan pirouetted away like a ballerina. "She's not a damn piece of meat for you to feel up alright? She's a damn princess AND a goddess, and my friend! Now you can continue to whore yourself with her or you could help me with bigger issues!" Washu typed a few commands into her invisible keyboard and a monitoring table materialized from hammer space.

Plopping the bruised princess down, Morrigan sauntered over to Washu. "She passes for now," she stuck her tongue out at the scientist. Morrigan knew what she was, and that was a demonic creature of lust so being called a whore really didn't faze her at all. "So what is the problem this time? That thing that blew up take out your pet store or something?" Morrigan rubbed Washu's head playfully. As long as the woman stayed a child and focused on other things Morrigan would play as was her nature, but if that demeanor changed so would her attitude.

"Something destroyed the laptop I was using to keep in contact with Shinji," Washu said exasperated. Going over all the feed she could find, "Whatever it was you think you saw just cut my only link to him, and his situation is getting worse by the moment," Washu was cursing her lack of options. _If only I had full command of my powers I could do something, but he just re-awakened them! _Having unlimited powers but the inability to control them was a super bitch.

Morrigan's attitude changed instantly, "I saw that blast roughly three miles south of here." She wouldn't play when something important was at stake. Her heart starting to race, Morrigan thought that her ploy at distracting Sasami had bought Shinji the rest of the day if not all the time he needed. "And how is he in trouble Crabs?" she couldn't resist the barb.

Knocking Morrigan's hand away from her head, Washu pointed at the screen she just pulled up. "See those bars? See how they're all in the red? Those are Shinji's bioreadings," she hoped something as insipid as a succubus could understand what it meant. Catching the deer in headlights look, Washu groaned, "He's been pushing himself constantly for almost two days now. His stress levels are maxed, and his body is pumping itself fool of hormones to keep going. If he doesn't slow down or get some honest to goodness rest he'll burn out. And knowing him it would happen at the worst possible time." At times Washu wondered if it was a hero's fate to die young, and at other times she knew it to be true.

"Well can't you do something with all this 'science' and 'technology' you have to help him?" Morrigan gripped Washu's shoulders painfully. Her sense of self preservation was screaming at her that pissing off Washu was equivalent to tossing rocks at the 'go' button of a nuke, but she couldn't stop it. "You've thrown him to the wolves and if I hadn't saved him last time he'd be broken and beaten by that skank that trapped him before!" her newfound emotions however weren't taking orders from the brain.

Backhanding the demon with enough force to send her flying through the air, Washu spun and her eyes blazed green. "You're not telling me something I DON'T KNOW! All of this is USELESS now! I have my obligations to more than just him, despite how much I want to help him!" Washu's fist plunged into a steel transformer as if it was tissue paper. "But for now I need YOU to stop being stupid and get your ass back out there and find him! You're the only option left right now," she tossed the succubus a new intercom.

Coughing as the air painfully returned to her lungs, Morrigan chided herself for snapping. "Thanks…C-Crabs, if you give me another I'll use them as earrings," she half gasped half spoke as she put the bud into her ear. "What about that thing…was a damn monster before I knocked you're sleeping beauty out," she pointed at the sulking cabbit.

"GREAT IDEA!" Washu shouted and hurriedly dug in the pockets of her lab coat. Finding what she was hoping for, Washu pulled out an over sized carrot and tossed it at the convalescing cabbit. "Eat up girl, you're going on a mission to save Sasami's future husband from a life of being most abused man since Tenchi!" Washu cheered. It was a perfect solution! Ryo-Oki could take on just about anything that could be thrown at her, was fiercely loyal to Sasami, could hunt like a bloodhound, and loved Shinji too! Even though infected with the virus, Ryo-Oki would return with Shinji to give him to Sasami before sampling him…giving Washu time to knock her out.

Gobbling her carrot as quickly as she could, Ryo-Oki didn't even notice the healing effects it was having. Her wounds from Kos-Mos were almost completely mended by the time she finished eating. "Mya! Mya!" she chimed as Washu grabbed her by the ears and hurled her out the opening in the ceiling and into the night sky, Morrigan was quick to follow.

X- Pissed off Washu is something that could only equal pain - X

Her body seemed almost incapable of taking a breath, but Rei maintained a sense of purpose. "What is their position?" she asked softly over the walkie-talkie. Her form fitting black sneaking suit was complemented by a black stocking cap that made her almost invisible on the darkened street. "Repeat have you heard anything from either contact point?" Rei looked up at the streetlights she had shot out. She had her stun gun poised on the sewer vents.

Ruri's crackling voice disrupted the eerie quiet that had descended on the section of Green territory she was hiding. "Confirmed, the group code named 'the inners' are moving towards the position of the target, and the second group code named 'the outers' is taking up flanking positions. Interesting to note is the inners are Whites and the outers are Greens." Ruri didn't like the fact two factions were siding together now, but her compatriot seemed not to care. "Are you ready to act Nodoka?" Ruri's tone was harsh and unpleasant as she felt the timid girl was more a hindrance than benefit.

Crawling through the sewers as Ruri and Rei dictated, Nodoka was gagging as she depressed the button to talk. "It smells horrible down here, and I can hardly see a thing without my flashlight!" she moaned over the device. Her role was small but vital, but she wasn't really enjoying it. "Are you sure you can get him to come this way if he's being chased by two groups?" she questioned.

Catching sight of the Inners light as the group of five noisily walked though the subterranean muck, Rei smiled thin. "Contact made, exactly as you said Ruri, are you picking up their communication?" Rei asked totally ignoring Nodoka. In Rei's grand scheme this event was doomed to failure, but there was always the chance that the spastic girl wouldn't get hit first as she planned and the unpleasantness to come could be avoided. Rei trained her dart gun on the girl with the blue hair that was in the back of the pack. "I swear I know them from someplace, but I cannot tell," she said to herself.

Trailing behind the Outers, Ruri pressed her earbud in closer, and the pirated airwaves were easily heard. "Hacking there signal was child's play, they were idiots to use a registered carrier band," Ruri listened to the chatter before she too found it hard to breath. They were close, dangerously close to victory. With the unavoidable battle between factions taking place at the gates of Nerv, most of the streets were deserted as each side mocked attendance. _If this goes according to my plan, Nodoka will take the target down after I take out the Outers as they chase him. _Rei had the job of taking out the Inners as she was best with guns. "I'm going to play the chatter over this channel, attack when you feel its right," her body was pins and needles of anticipation.

"Luna said he's just around this corner," the voice of the pigtailed girl said. Rei could tell only by the way her hand moved and the others nodded. Rei crept further along, always keeping the blue haired girl in her sights. "Remember we're to flush him down the right tunnel where the others will trap him," the crackling voice ringed like church bells in Rei's ears. It was all going according to plan, and she could hope Nodoka pulled off a miracle. "Stop in the name of the Moon Shinji-kun!" the girl shouted and pointed a gloved finger at Shinji…it was time.

Rei gave Shinji a passing glance, he looked tired and that gave her more hope for Nodoka. "One down," Rei whispered as she fired and the blue one went down unnoticed. Rushing along the sewer grates as the chase began, Rei's belt made loud sounds as her assortment of gadgets bounced back and forth. "So much for blonds," she quipped as she fired at the girl wearing orange and the long blond haired girl fell.

"Status?" Ruri asked growing anxious. Her quartet was moving along the predetermined path. If they learned she was spying on them, they could easily overpower her before she could get off a warning to Rei or Nodoka, but three of them seemed oddly focused on the small girl with the glaive. "Have you neutralized your targets yet?" she was hurried and hated the urgency that edged her words.

Firing two more shots and the brunette and the girl with the red frills went down, "Only the leader is left and she is trailing far behind him. Its like clockwork," Rei felt an exhilaration she'd never felt before course through her body. It was close to how she felt when she thought about Shinji, only dimmer and less needed. "And….down she goes," Rei let out a pleasure filled sigh as leader fell with a splash into the dirty water. "It's on you now, he doesn't know they're not chasing him any more," Rei shut off her walkie-talkie and ran towards the meeting point, "Good luck."

Sadly for Ruri she was doomed for failure as three of the Outer Senshi weren't affected the same way as many of the other women were.

X – Rei as the spy…oddly sexy – X

His chest hurt with every breath he took, but Shinji kept running regardless. "Cat…must have led them back to me," he sputtered as he slowed his pace. Unable to hear them following he allowed himself a moment of rest. Gripping the edge of wall, he was faced with a four way split in the sewer. "Great…which way do I go?" he pondered. With all the running from Usagi and her friends, Shinji got disorientated.

"Shinji-kun stop!" Hotaru bellowed as she led the Outers into glorious battle. Her glaive was pointed at him, not that she'd hurt him but she had to give the illusion she'd strike lest he try and run again. "You're now under our protection. Just submit to us and we can end all this pointless hardship," she took a step closer to him.

A raspy sigh ended with almost a sob, Shinji's head sank as Hotaru's words echoed in the tunnel and in his head. He just couldn't get a break, it was one problem after another and he was almost at his limit. "Hotaru…no…please let me go," he aimed his armlet at her, but he didn't know if he could shoot at his past owner. Sure he had been a cat, but a connection between them had been forged. The bond between pet and owner goes beyond love…and Shinji had been struck by it.

Michiru took up her place on Hotaru's left and put her hand on the demure girl's shoulder. "Ikari-kun, why are you running from us anyway? Isn't this what any man would give his right arm for? You would have your choice of any…ALL women," her tone was accusatory almost vindictive. Her mirror in hand, she didn't point it at him yet, she wanted him to talk and she wanted to trust her instincts first.

On Hotaru's right, Haruka had her sword in hand, and her body language spoke leagues. She wasn't happy, she didn't like the sewer, didn't like being forced to join the Green faction, and she didn't like Hotaru's attitude. "Ikari, admit it, this is all a ploy to get all the factions together so you'll have your pick of all the women of this town," she wanted to hate the boy that had taken her sweet daughter's heart.

Closing in the trap, Setsuna grabbed Shinji from behind as he was startled by the others. "Tell us the truth boy, tell us you're doing this for selfish reasons and maybe we'll treat you right here and now," she whispered hauntingly into his ears. She had been watching him ever since Haruka and Michiru came to her fuming about Hotaru's would-be boyfriend. _His essence is screaming with power, but his aura is as passive as the ocean. Interesting mix. _

A pain spike wrenched through his chest, as if a needle in his heart, Shinji shrugged off Setsuna's grasp and braced himself against the wall. "NO! I will not let anybody do something like that! You don't mean it! You don't really want that!" His vision started to blur, but he couldn't stop now, couldn't let these women do what they didn't really want. "Haruka-san, Michiru-san…you two love EACH OTHER not me…don't do this! If…if you let me go I can reverse the effects, I just need time for the cure to get finished and get to Nerv!"

Red ribbons started to unfurl from Hotaru's glaive, she didn't care that Shinji somehow could see through the illusion of her suit. "I will remake this world for us…for all four of us," she turned to her parents and smiled. Surely they would want a world for just them, with no problems, no pain, and just a lot of carnal delight. The ribbons flurried and danced about as they grew in size and length. Spinning the glaive over her head, "Death..REBORN…REVOLU…"

Thud.

Scooping up Hotaru and holding her like the child like the baby she wished Hotaru would always remain, Haruka turned to Shinji. "I think she's had enough excitement for today. Don't know what happened to the little bunny and her friends, but we'll look into that." Nodding to Michiru, Haruka headed down the path Shinji had initially come from.

Falling in step behind her love, Michiru stopped at Shinji's side for a moment. "We don't know why we're not affected by whatever has hit the rest of the women, but we played along." Maybe it was their different stance on relationships, maybe it was their resolve, whatever it was they were glad they maintained their sanity in order to protect Hotaru. "As for you…I think you just passed Haruka's test," Michiru gave Shinji a small peck on the cheek and jogged after Haruka.

"It is not much, but I can offer you one small thing that might aid you," Setsuna said breaking Shinji from his shock paralysis. Having only drank a little before her friends told her not to, Setsuna was slowly loosing out to the virus, but was still in control. "I can make time pass slowly for you, but only for five minutes. It is a taboo to stop time, but slowing it is something that can be overlooked."

"Wh-what do you mean?" Shinji asked stupefied at the sudden change in Michiru and Haruka. He was glad that the pair weren't going to switch sides again and use him as their first match back on the straight and narrow. But his brain was to frazzled to fully grasp what this unknown woman was saying. "I'm sorry, but I'm just so tired that I can't think straight right now. Could you try saying it again?" he said and ended with a yawn.

Giggling, Setsuna stomped her staff on the ground and her crystal resonated with the fabric of space time. "For the everything inside this sphere," she gestured to the ball of green haze billowing up around them, "time will run differently. To you five hours will pass, but for us only a minute. Essentially giving you five hours to use however you wish without fear." Blowing the mist over Shinji's face, she felt herself growing more and more attracted to him…wanting to see just how far his resolve would waver if she say…took her clothing off. "I have to go…now!" she yelped and ran after the other Outers, "use your time wisely!"

Shinji was already asleep as Setsuna fell back into the normal time stream and if Shinji was conscious would have seen her standing still. His nap lasted a whole three hours, but was more than enough to rejuvenate the tired boy. "Guess I have two more hours to put some distance between me and this place and Usagi and her friends," he stretched and unwrinkled his clothing the best he could. Walking at a hurried pace, he was shocked to find Nodoka lurking with a dart gun down the corridor he ran. What shocked him the most was when he climbed out the manhole he saw Ruri who looked like she was about to scream.

What Shinji would never know was he luckily was accosted by Hotaru in street interception that gave the platinum haired bombshell no venue to shoot from. The thing he did know was that a suitable access port to the Nerv power station was a few miles further south…into the very heart of the Green homeland.

X- Not even science can break Haruka and Michiru –X

"I have the report from the battle," Ritsuko announced as she walked into what had once been her lab. Now since Ritsuko was a smart woman she didn't comment how Misato was starting to scary the ever loving hell out of her. To say that to Misato would have bought her a seat on the front lines…not that she wasn't dangerously close already. But the moment Misato took up shop in her lab, Ritsuko had to seriously question the Red leader's mental state. "We have three injured that will take some time to heal. Urd is missing from combat, and Shion's mech went berserk and destroyed part of the armory. Oddly enough it was that incident that ended the battle." Nobody wanted to fight a two story tall walking insane-bot.

Soldering the last pieces of her finest creation together, Misato's eyebrows raised the tiniest fraction at Ritsuko's report. "Have you brought me what I asked for?" her tone was borderline bored. The comings and goings of the other Red agents were almost trivial at this point. Ritsuko had essentially taken command with Maya as her second. Misato had bigger fish to fry…and when she did fry him it would start with a slow marinade.

Groaning, Ritsuko dropped the contents she'd purloined from the hospital wing. "I don't know why you want Shinji-kun's blood…unless you're into that kinky shit now," Ritsuko was worried. The Red's needed men…men to be used again and again for their damn pleasure, not hunting after one in particular. "I know you want Shinji, but he's just one out of the potentials we can have! The other women are thinking its time to replace you, Misato."

"I could care less if I'm replaced at this point," Misato grabbed the packets of Shinji's blood and ran her fingers over them. The final piece was in her grasp now to finalize her plans. Everybody else was now irrevocably bound to her plan. "They were happy to follow my orders when I found the first three men. It was not my fault they were not of use. Now that the battle has finally started they're afraid of getting hurt but not getting any action…well any action they really want. Let the fools have whatever leader they want." Misato poured the contents of the blood packs into several small canisters.

Taking a trembling step forward, Ritsuko was sure she was going to regret every moment that followed. "Misato, what are you making?" Misato never sounded so sure of herself unless she had hidden about twenty aces up her sleeve. As she had been the advocate for the less brave women, she had the privilege and honor of being the messenger who got shot. "It's nothing dangerous right?"

Sliding her new toy into its holder on her side, Misato turned to face Ritsuko with a face akin to madness. She had officially gone over the edge, just in a more dramatic fashion that the simple minded girls. "Nothing is dangerous if used correctly. Even Asuka and Kos-Mos can be used, and that is what I intend on doing. I'll burn this city to ashes before I let somebody get him. I need a man, but only he will do…and I will have him." Storming past Ritsuko, Misato had a purpose and a goal. And right now her goal was to make sure all the vents leading to the lab were turned off or sabotaged. She had a guest that was go be coming soon and she was going to have the purple carpet ready for him.

"Holy shit she's gone crazy," Ritsuko's palm was to her cheek, but she wasn't afraid. "If she had a penis I'd be so over her right now," and she meant it too. What had attracted her to Gendo was pouring out of Misato at the moment, and Ritsuko was infatuated. Heading back to the masses, Ritsuko did get one bit of bad news that undid all the warm fuzzies picturing Misato was 'unnatural male enhancement' had done.

Maya and Shion came running up to her and in unison, "Attim's taken the alpha squad as her own and left Nerv…she's making her own faction!" Attim had finally had enough stupidity and self serving from the Red's as had many of the other prominent and powerful members…The Onxy Faction was going to end this petty fight, and end it fast.

X- Attim doesn't get enough love…-X

Author Notes

Well just having more fun with this odd story. This arc doesn't have much left to it as time keeps on marching towards zero-hour. Hope ya enjoyed.

Ja Mata

Zentrodie


	39. Misato is not crazy she is focused

Standard Disclaimer

Man, I didn't realize I've been writing this story off and on for the better part of 6 years! Why the hell have you people continued to read it! Don't get me wrong, I love the fact that people read my stuff, but its just a collection of mish-mash that couldn't be a stand alone story! Anyway…Happy B-day WW!

X-X

What We Make of it

Chapter 39 – It's not the size its how you use it

Or

The Big Crawl

"Hold on a minute here!" Washu jerked her head back as her monitors of Shinji shifted. The little nano-tech in those suckers was doing wonderfully in transmitting his bio-readings, but next time she'd have to put a tracker in them. "Bat-head did you find him or something? My readings just changed drastically," Washu muttered as she re-examined Shinji's current state. While he was still in the red-range he had dropped far enough down to alleviate Washu's fear of him dropping before getting to Nerv.

Flying slowly over the city, oddly quiet for her taste, Morrigan rolled her eyes. "Maybe your computer is broken Crabs, or you're reading it wrong." Holding Ryo-Oki out like a divining rod, the cabbit would yowl when it sensed the male carrot provider. "As for Shin-baby, this cutie of a 'bloodhound' is slowly getting the job done, but I haven't found him yet."

Reaffirming the readings, Washu let out a deep sigh. "Stupid tachyons messing up my readings," Washu hated time travel and time manipulation. Reversing or slowing the 'constants' really messed with her calculations and that was why she had its stopping banned. "Somebody down there just slowed time down and it seems Shinji was the benefactor of it," guess luck did occasionally find Shinji.

"I'm going to stop listening to you, Crabs, unless you start making sense," Morrigan couldn't be expected to translate genius and calm herself enough to function. She could sense it, something in the city's energy was shifting and it was a powerful thing. "I see that trail of red circling the city, south of my location. I think it's her royal pain in the ass," Morrigan would never 'like' Asuka no matter what happened.

Booting up some of the external cameras, Washu confirmed one of the Big Bads was back. "Shit, Hild's spell must have weakened when she was sealed. Guess you have both of them to worry about now. Kos-Mos is in the south to, my guess is you'll be headed that way." Washu wanted to make a snide comment or joke, but even she would feel trepidation when going against both of those loonies.

Flying lower and tosses Ryo-Oki on her head, Morrigan repressed the shiver. "Great, with my luck they'll get to him first…hell maybe that would be good. Those two could counter each other couldn't they?" Dodging light posts and banners, Morrigan flew over a collection of women wearing Onyx armbands, and she made eye-contact with the woman she knew as Attim M-Zack. "This is looking like a big fight is coming up soon," Morrigan wanted to join in, but had more things to worry about.

Sniffing the air, Ryo-Oki finally got a good whiff of her beloved Master's soon-to-be husband. Jumping up and down on Morrigan's head, the cabbit did its best to steer the woman using the head wings. "Mya Mya! MYA!!!" the cabbit tried speaking, but not being in human form did have certain vocal limitations. The provider was almost beneath them!

"Calm down you little lady or I'll have to have spayed," the succubus quipped as she slowed down. Giving the rally of women another quick glance, Morrigan heaved a sigh of relief when they assembly started marching away. Grabbing the cabbit by the scruff of it's neck, Morrigan held it in front of her face. "Now tell auntie Morrigan where the carrot you want to ride is?"

If Ryo-Oki could blush, she would have been red as a cherry at being called out accurately. Rolling her head wildly, Ryo-Oki broke free of the deadly thumb and forefinger of the mean green haired lady, and descended to the ground landed on a dumpster. "Mya-Mya!" she jumped up and down on the bin. Indeed, the carrot she wanted to ride, much like her Master, was hiding inside the metal basket.

Coming in for a landing by the trash bin, Morrigan felt Shinji's essence radiating out from inside the receptacle. "Shin-baby it's your lovely personal succubus here for your protection. So why not stop taking naps in dirty places like that, might get you sick," she cooed as she opened the lid. Her newly found emotions were wracked at what she saw. "Oh Shin-baby, what's wrong?" she pulled the poor lad out of the trash and held helped him to stand.

On shaky legs, Shinji was doing all he could to keep from pitching forward. "I was almost caught as I made my way here. Barely got into the dumpster before they saw me. I think I cut myself on something in there," Shinji held out his bleeding forearm. Scratching Ryo-Oki with his good hand as the cabbit jumped on his head, he felt like what he had been laying in. His arm was on fire, his legs ached horribly, and his vision was starting to swim. "But its past midnight now, I can climb though the vents into Nerv."

His face, Morrigan was haunted by that pale and listlessness in it. Drawing him into a hug, "Baby, you're not fit for any of this right now, and you know it." But they didn't have a choice. Morrigan had no idea how to work the controls, nor did she have a way into the facility other than the front door and it was heavily guarded. "Any chance you'll let my just kill my may into that place with you on my back?" she could hope he'd let that whole ethical debate slide.

Feeling Ryo-Oki jump to his shoulder and stat nuzzling softly against him and whimpering, Shinji shook his head slowly. "It'll be easy going to shimmy through the pipe. I can take a break at the other end as I wait for the last of the time to expire," he held Morrigan's hand with his good one. "I-I wanted to thank you for helping me so much, and I want to apologize. I forgot you were fighting Sasami after I ran. It wasn't fair of me to do that."

Letting out a raucous laugh, Morrigan couldn't believe what she was hearing. "Baby, you are one of a kind, do you know that?" Kissing his forehead, Morrigan felt that same spike of oneness and sublime unity as whenever she kissed him. _Bet if we made love I'd die of pleasure overload. But such might never happen. _Ruffling his hair, "You have your own worries, don't go fretting over this servant of yours more than necessary."

"Servant?" Shinji's eyes went wide as Morrigan's words lanced through him like a knife through wet toilet paper. Giving the street a quick look as sounds of footsteps started to get louder, Shinji shuffled to the backside of the dumpster. "What are you talking about Morrigan-san?" he knelt down and grabbed a discarded shirt and wrapped his bleeding arm with it.

Drawing her index and middle finger to her lips, Morrigan blew a kiss to Shinji. "Guess you didn't understand what I said to you back at the pageant. In respect to you freeing me from a life of darkness and endless insatiable lust I became your servant to make amends." She'd not bother him with the facts that she loved him dearly, he had enough on his plate to worry about. "Why her royal highness did the same, I can't be certain," she just hoped that Asuka's mother never got wind of it.

Naga had certain issues with men, namely she loved all of Asuka's choices a little to much.

His cheeks burned, giving him a more normal complexion for a moment, Shinji shook that idea out of his head. Being a human meant he did have hormones, just they didn't rule the roost. But hearing that he had a succubus, an achingly beautiful one, just admit to being his servant did wonders for his imagination. "I-I'm flattered, and unworthy Morrigan-san. Maybe we can talk about this t-tomorrow after I finish what I have to do," but a small part of Shinji wondered if he'd live long enough to see it.

"Morrigan give Shinji the earpiece already, if you're done trying to convince him to receive sexual healing!" Washu wasn't happy with the conversation she was listening to at all. Compounding the issue was hearing that Shinji was likely infected with something meant her healing agent on him was starting to wear down. "Is that you Shinji? Can you hear me?" Washu asked after hearing some rustling.

Tapping the bud deeper into his ear, "I hear you Washu-chan, I'm about to start crawling into Nerv." He felt a large yawn coming, but was able to mask it…he thought. "But I think something strange is happening with those factions. Before I only saw three colors, but I was chased by women wearing black banners now," and he was certain he had heard Attim's voice calling after him.

"Don't worry about that, Shinji-kun, leave that stuff to the big breasted bimbo in the skank outfit," Washu could still feel her anger rising over Morrigan's manhandling of Sasami. "You just get yourself into a safe place and take care of yourself until you administer that cure," she had a recovery chamber already prepped for him when this whole mess was over.

Scratching his nose as he headed towards the access point, "I don't think Morrigan's outfit is bad." It was made of pure sex appeal and even Shinji's near dead libido could sense that. Watching as Morrigan again leaned over, showing off her near mind shattering cleavage, and pulled the vent open as if it was tinfoil, "Thank you, Morrigan-san," and on a vague urge he could hardly fathom he kissed her lightly on the lips. "S-sorry…I don't know what came over me," he squeaked as began to shimmy into the vent.

"I was created to be everything men desired, I'd be offended if I didn't get a little rise out of you," Morrigan lied before sealing Shinji in the vent. Sealing the vent behind her, Morrigan fought the panicking cabbit, she traced her lips with her finger and a lone tear crested her eye. "What has become of me to be so…so overwhelmed by something so small?" she asked aloud to the nobody listening. No matter, she would not break her vow and never would she say anything other than 'it's just my nature' to him.

X- Shinji does have a libido it's just been knocked out by multiple morphine shots –X

She was fuming, but her surrogate sister didn't seem to mind, "I don't know what happened! One moment I had them in my sights and the next everybody was gone!" Ruri hated failing, and hated not understanding things even less. How had not only Shinji escaped her, but the other girls had somehow moved out of her line of sight was outside her ability to comprehend. "What are we going to do now? Do we give up on him and go back to…"

"NO!" Rei hissed as she continued to hack into the Green communication array, "He is the only male that matters. If you want to go, I'd hate to see you leave, but I won't stop you." Having Ruri around made Rei less anxious. Sure the plan was still moving perfectly, but Rei was only one woman, and Shinji had already proven he could take one woman out without a problem.

Shuffling her feet, Nodoka didn't like confrontations and the scene between Ruri and Rei could have exploded into one at any moment. Oddly neither complained that she had failed, it was almost as if they expected it. "W-why is he so important over the other men. I mean…with your combined powers you could easily break into the sealed vaults and have your choice of any man you wanted," Nodoka squirmed at the notion of having an army of men at her disposal.

"Got it!" Rei said before turning to Nodoka, letting the communications play aloud Rei lanced the timid girl with a fierce gaze. "I don't want just any man, I want the perfect one for me. You two could go," Rei tossed the small girl a USB pendrive. "Put that in the access point outside the door to the shelter and it'll open," Rei had many back up plans.

Holding the tiny plastic device, afraid it would turn into a vicious snake and bite her, Nodoka didn't know what to make of it. "You had access to those men all along and yet you still went after that one boy?" Nodoka couldn't fathom it! The longer she went without a man, the more she found her pickiness dwindling. Shinji had been a very nice idea, but surely another man would be like him.

Ruri's eyebrow raised questioningly, "How long did you have that? Were you still leading the Whites at the time?" The other girls would have easily went for the quick answer to there need for some serious nookie, but Rei insisted Shinji was the only option. "You lied to us about the shelters?" but the question was why.

"If you knew that you had options, you'd never had worked on my plan to get Shinji. Now that things are inline, I don't care if you go and bang whatever specimen of masculinity you want," Rei adjusted the volume of the speaker, the voices of the Greens echoed in the small alley they were hiding in. "I want you to know this, Ruri, how he is the true one for me…and maybe yourself. But if you want any piece of meat you can get your hands on go," it would pain her but if Ruri had low tastes then…so be it.

Taking a few steps away from the twin albino's, Nodoka looked at the key to the gates of carnal delight and started running away from them. Her mind was almost gone to the virus, she was one step away from being like Shinobu, and so her salvation lay in her own hands. "I'll have first pick! Me! I won't be last like with the Whites or with those two…I'll have them ALL!" she giggled as she ran.

For a moment, a brief moment Ruri felt like joining Nodoka, but Rei's pleading face stopped her. "I'm with you, I'll regret it later, but I'm with you till the end," she grabbed Rei's hand and shook it. "Now what do we do about her?" she gestured to the departing form of their departing third.

Flipping a switch, Rei's feral smile chilled yet enthralled Ruri, "Repeat, girl spotted with key to the shelters found! Repeat a girl has a key to the men's vaults! Purple hair and eyes moving south down Route 231," Rei's attempt at sounding excited failed in all respects, but it didn't matter. Soon the chatter on the line was confirmation of the girl's location and orders to follow.

Soon all factions would be at the gates of the shelter, and Rei's plan would enter end game! But little did she know, Misato had a few aces hidden and waiting to punch a few holes. Gathering their gear together, Ruri shouldered Nodoka's discarded bag, "You're evil, you know that?"

X- If only the men knew what they were missing –X

Attim didn't know what the few Grey's in the city were doing, but seeing Morrigan flying overhead an hour ago unnerved her. But she had little time for worries now, she had a war machine to run. "I repeat, join the Onyx faction or be destroyed," she said over a microphone to a small building with several Greens inside. "No harm will come to you if you submit and join us. Several of our agents have already captured the girl with the key and are making our way to the shelter," Attim wasn't going to play favorites like Misato had.

Hakufu and Usagi were already standing behind Attim. Usagi saw the show of intelligence and refined and focused power as signs that Attim was clearly in charge. Hakufu relented when Attim put her throw several walls without breaking as nail. With two leaders on its side already, the blitzkrieg the Onyx faction was issuing was picking up steam and new members as it moved.

Rushing up to Attim, as three of the Greens walked out with their hands up, Yurika had a special report for her esteemed leader. "M-Zak! We have troubles! The girl with the key has been taken by a Red attack party. Apparently Katsuragi was deposed after we splintered from them, and they're no longer looking for 'the prime target'." Yurika had never been told WHAT the prime target really was, just where to find it. "A large battalion of Red's are on the move towards the shelter with her. If they get in before us, they can fortify and we'd be denied!"

Having eyes only for her pupil, Attim wanted to say let the Red's have it, but her forces didn't share her affection. "Have all members report in and move towards the gates. Remember no killing, but use any means to subdue and overtake them. Let those that want to join us do so. And remember," she turned to the large assembly of women ready to kill for some loving, "One man for every woman! Do well enough and you'll have two!"

A rallying cry of unadulterated lust echoed in the street as Attim's forces screamed out their demands. With Attim in the lead, the superior forces of the Onyx brigade made its way swiftly to the gates of the secured shelter only to find the remnants of the White and Green factions that refused to join up, and the Red's at the door.

Chidori spoke for the Whites as the factions bundled close and waiting for the moment to attack. "We the Whites decree that Nodoka as member of our faction should be returned to us! The key is ours, as are the men! Stand down and let the future of womankind have what is rightfully ours!" Chidori and Tessa never did like Usagi's plan to side with the Greens, but without support they couldn't move.

Taking a step out from the throng of women that made up the remains of the Green faction, Asuna Kagurazaka stood proud. "What would the Whites do with a man anyway! The true future of womankind lies with us! The fighting forces of Green! The men would break you, where we would break the men!" Her forces cheered and readied there weapons. Those floozies that fought for the title of Ikkitosen were just foolish whelps who got off on fighting, the remaining Greens were more focused and trained.

"Get that door open fast or we're going to be in a world of shit," Ritsuko whispered to Shion and Maya. Heading to the front of her faction as the other leaders had, Ritsuko wanted nothing more than to be back at Nerv, find Misato and graft something to the ex-leaders waist. "Fuck off, all of you," was her dignified and elegant retort to Asuna and Chidori.

Making up the forth side to the power struggle was the smallest yet most powerful faction, Attim's Onyx brigade. "None of you have been honest with your followers! The Red's could have had the door blown open yesterday, but Katsuragi wanted one man and only one. The Whites could have hacked the door open, but Ayanami sent you all on pointless chases, the Green's could have forced the door open but…honestly were to driven by in-fighting to care. We the Onyx have been honest and open about our aims. Sex! Each woman here is going to get a man, and ride him until he brakes, and then get another!"

As the factions all bated and glared at the others, none of them did anything. They were all waiting for the signal to start the battle. Laughing loudly, Misato walked out into the middle of all the women. "Look at you! All so eager for something to plug into you. Not one of you caring about who you get, just that it gets done." Drawing her secret weapon from her side, Misato pointed the oddly shaped gun into the night sky. "Some of you feel as I do, that only one man is worthy of my body, I burn for it, but I will not just throw anybody at that fire!"

The factions drew silent as the crazy ex-leader of the Red's continued to rant. Some of the Whites started to understand what Misato was saying, while others were too lost to care. Attim was grinding her teeth the half-assed accusation she was a whore, but she'd let Misato have her spiel before she trounced the woman. And the Red's just frantically tried to use the USB key to open the door.

"All this talk about factions and who gets what, I think you all forgot about the most important faction…the GREY'S!" Misato roared as she depressed the trigger and a fine red mist sprayed into the air. Shinji's scent went billowing into the night sky. Popping up behind Misato, as planned, Urd used her wind magic to send the fragrant bouquet to all corners of the city. "Thank you Urd-chan, I knew I could count on you," Misato quipped but it wasn't necessary.

As the factions started laughing at the stupidity of Misato, they were ready to start the fight in earnest. That was until both Asuka and Kos-Mos came flying in at near the speed of sound. Crashing in almost on top of Misato, the deposed leader of the Red's finished her master plan and sprayed both Kos-Mos and Asuka with Shinji's blood amid the terrified shrieks and cries of the onlookers.

Seeing the demon covered in her Master's blood, Kos-Mos's eyes burned such a bright blue it made the appear to be day. "You killed my Master, prepare to die!" Kos-Mos flexed out her X-Buster and launched at Asuka.

Sniffing the blood covering Kos-Mos, Asuka's continence burst into flames so hot it melted the asphalt. "Mine…he was mine…" tearing off towards the incoming android projectile, Asuka was going to tear that damn things head off and floss with it hair!

Sagely, Misato had already climbed back into the manhole she had used to make her dramatic entrance. She had no doubt Attim was aware of what was going to happen, and use that damn phasing trick to avoid the outcome. That just meant she had to move fast to get to Nerv where Shinji was no doubt making his way.

On the street however, as Asuka and Kos-Mos began to battle over who would get to be crowned Queen of Ass-kickery. The energy released and power of their intense hatred was causing the assembled women to be bounced around like ping pong balls. The weaker women were so overcome with the forces being released that the fainted dead away, while the others found solace in being bounced off walls and fixture.

In the end both Asuka and Kos-Mos K.O.'ed each other as they both punched one another's hand at the same moment. The epicenter of the blast knocked not only them out, but power to the whole city. Rei smiled as the power finally went off twenty minutes later than she expected, and the last doorway to Nerv opened wide for Ruri and her to move through.

X- Misato is a devious and crafty woman…why do people keep thinking she's stupid –X

The trembling earth sent Touji falling to his knees, "Holy hell what is going on outside of this damn door?" He had heard a lot of yelling and put his ear to the door to hear more when the minor earthquake sent him tumbling. "I am so tired of being in this damn place," and he was out of money to rent things from Kensuke.

"I know how you feel, they seriously need to get us out soon, or we're going to have a major problem," Kensuke sighed and walked back to the section of wall they called home. His rental business had been going well, but the mood in the shelter was getting worse and worse with each passing day. "Some of these guys are about to do something stupid to try and bust us out if those women don't act fast," he pointed to a trio of men secretly talking to one another.

Kaji and Gendo wanted out and were not above using makeshift explosives to get the job done. Kozo however had been steadily loosing ground in convincing the idiotic duo of the repercussions. A lot of other men weren't doing much better. Boyfriends missed girlfriends, husbands missed wives, and the more desperate men were saving a bundle of cash from not visiting the Red Light. Loneliness caused people to do stupid things, and the powder keg was dangerously close to exploding.

Sneaking a PSP out of Kensuke's bag, Touji moaned, "I wonder what is keeping them from letting us out. Last we heard they were frantically working on it, but it's been over a full day!" And the grey walls were starting to close in on him, smaller and smaller the cell was becoming. Soon all the air would be gone, he'd suffocate with a bunch of dudes! When future humans excavated them they'd think it was a big gay mass suicide! He didn't want his remains to used as proof that early humanity did dumb things!

"You're thinking you're going to remembered as an advocate for Gay rights again aren't you," Kensuke smacked Touji on the back of the head. Once every hour or so Kensuke would catch his buddy hallucinating and panicking about something stupid. "One, unless the world has died outside this building we will get out eventually. And two, …I don't even have a two! You're just being stupid!" Kensuke grinned as he added another tally to Touji's bill.

Rubbing the sore spot, "Thanks, I needed that buddy." Fumbling with the game, some strategy RPG that was so much better at kicking his ass than the reverse, Touji growled at the device. "Just wish Shin-man was here, ya know? He has cool stories about all that stuff he does, or at least with three of us we could play a few card games or something," Touji pouted.

Nodding in agreement, Kensuke didn't like two player games that much either. "With just two there isn't enough strategy or backstabbing for a good game of Munckin," he tossed the deck of cards back in his bag. "When we DO get out of here, all three of us are going to have a big guys only day. Games, junk food, and stupid movies until our eyes are buggy," he liked the sound of that.

"If you can get those damn women away from him," Touji's head swiveled from side to side. "The more I think about his problems, the more I realize just having one girlfriend would be hard enough. I mean he has so many problems with this, and he doesn't even seem to WANT it," as Touji logically thought about the benefits and problems of having a harem he found the want for one girl better.

Pulling out a book of computer programming, Kensuke had an idea about how to open the door. "I didn't think I'd ever hear you say that. I mean aren't you all about having as many women as possible? Isn't that every man's dream?" Not that he fantasized about it more than the next guy. It was a exciting notion, but reality of making that many people happy took a special type of person.

Turning off the game, Touji stared up at the droning lights, "Shinji can do it because he's so selfless…I'm not and you're not. We'd just screw it up trying to get our own happiness and not thinking of them. I guess you have to be more…I don't know but I think we need to stop giving him such a hard time about it." Being jealous of Shinji wasn't fair to the boy, as Shinji never once said he wanted or even tried for the things he got.

"Getting philosophical on me Touji? I swear if a girl saw you like this it would just ruin that 'I'm a dumb jock' reputation you have," Kensuke started typing a few commands into this console. If he could write a virus to override the safety protocol for the door he could try forcing it open. "But you're right. I'd not have the patience or the capacity to handle the problems he has. Guess it's a good thing I love money more than women," and that tasty crumpet Attim was good on the eyes and selling her pictures was a goldmine.

Taking one of Kensuke's magazines, Touji slide down to the floor and covered his eyes. "Don't be talking stupid, I'm just saying the truth. Shinji is different than us, and I guess that's a good thing. I'm taking a nap, wake me if something happens," he closed his eyes and tried not to think about the truth behind his words.

Kensuke grunted as he continued to type, lost in his programming zone anybody could have stolen his goods and he'd not have known it. The logic seemed to be valid, it might cause a lot of damage to the structure, but Nerv could pay to repair it. "This will work…by God it will work!"

X- A moment of non-hormonal stupidity from the other Stooges-X

"And that was how I realized that by mixing unknown chemicals I could be banned from certain solar systems," Washu finished her little story with a mighty laugh. She had created a drink on a planet several thousand years ago that was so coveted that it created a war. The survivors banned Washu from the system for crimes against the universe. "Don't get the joke?" she asked apprehensively.

Covered in dirt, grime, and sweat Shinji wasn't in the laughing mood. "Sorry Washu-chan, just a little preoccupied. And was that an earthquake I felt?" he prayed it was just one of the women unleashing fury on a vending machine. He had been lucky he wasn't claustrophobic, because if he had been he'd have swallowed his own tongue by now. Four hours of crawling in a vent that barely allowed him to fit.

Checking her computer, and wincing at the devastation Asuka and Kos-Mos had just presented the city with, Washu continued to lie. "Looks like a water main broke and caused a building to collapse. I'll send Morrigan over to investigate it," Morrigan hadn't come back and Washu was pleased with that. Shinji was safely away from her and almost to the lab. With hope and a little scientific coaxing, Washu was going to have Hild take Morrigan away with her. "How you feeling?" she didn't want to know but had to ask.

Knowing it was better to tell Washu the truth than try lying, she saw through his lies as if they weren't there he confessed. "I'm losing sensation in my left hand, it's totally numb. My stomach is on fire, and I hope I don't leave a mess behind me," his human weaknesses were mocking him. He had to keep going, the whole city was depending on him, and he wouldn't fail. "But I can see light up ahead so I must be almost there," he closed his eyes and let that little factoid dancing in his forebrain.

Her screens confirmed everything he said. His heightened adrenaline had burnt through her modifications far faster than Washu could have ever predicted. "You're doing fine, Shinji don't worry about it. Just think about all the sleep you can get after this is all over. I'll even see to it that Hild has a special new bed for you," Washu felt sick. That boy was running on sheer determination now, and without medical help was going to die in less than two days. If things went poorly, and Shinji had to flee it would be game, set, and match.

"How much longer till the cure is ready? And what will I have to do to get it deployed?" Shinji would never tell Washu that he knew she was lying. He had found her tell, she'd always stress the last word of a sentence when she was lying. _She means well, and if I was that bad she'd have called be back. _But being so close to ending this nightmare he wasn't going to back out now! "Will it take long to get them all?" he hoped not.

Reworking the cities water regulator system, Washu was damn proud of herself. "You have to take the cure and pour it into the water interchange system in the lab. I've reworked the cities systems to get it pumped to all the right places to overload and flood the streets with it. It will be literally raining cure once you do this. That won't take more than an hour or so." And once the cure was in the air, Washu had a little additive she'd added to the atmosphere to knock out anybody who had the cure and breathed it in. A two part solution that was harmless alone, but when combined would knock those women out cold.

With the majority of women in a big pile of unconscious already outside the doorway to the men's shelter it would be a simple matter to get the rest. Once she didn't have to focus so hard on teleporting men to the shelter, she'd easily be able to get the few stragglers. Problem would be anybody at Nerv not in a room with a sprinkler system…aka the lab. But nobody would be there, why would there be?

"Sounds good to me," Shinji grunted with a content grin. "And I have to admit I'm ready for a vacation already. Funny how I just had one, but want another," he admitted. This time Shinji would take an at-home vacation and watch television and play video games instead of combat training. Crawling up to the vent, Shinji peered down into the seemingly empty laboratory. "I can see the machine making the cure, countdown has four hours left," he could last that long in the tin can.

Her stomach was dropping, Washu wiped the back of her head, "Excellent news. You rest a bit, and when the time comes go as fast as you can. I'll set up something else to help get everybody cured while you do." A feeling of the most intense pride washed over her, "You're going to be the best son-in-law ever kid, just wanted to say that." Sasami had a real winner in this one. Washu was proud.

Scanning the lab one last time before shutting his eyes, Shinji saw it was a straight shot from the dispenser to distribution vat. "Way ahead of you, but I still think Sasami could do better. But lets not have that discussion now," he murmured as his eyes closed again. His body was nearly broken, and the few moments of sleep he was getting were the only things keeping him from stopping permanently.

And as the boy slept, Misato, Rei with Ruri, and Attim were all taking up their positions for when the suspect in question would drop. They didn't know where he would come from exactly, not with so many vents and access tunnels, but they had close enough idea. And when he came, they'd attack the others and claim what was theirs right then and there.

X- Enter End Game! –X

Author notes

That's right, next chapter is the end of this arc! It was an odd experiment in more action writing than comedy, so it was a little weaker on that front, sorry. Next arc is going to be 95% comedy and I hope ya like it.

Ja Mata

Zentrodie


	40. Fire first ask questions never

Standard Disclaimer

Well here it is the end of the Virus Arc. Hope ya enjoy

X-X

What We Make of it

Chapter 40 – Showdown

Or

Happy Ending?

Maneuvering through the empty halls of Nerv the stoic teen duo of questionable genetic makeup moved as silently as possible. A skeleton crew was still operating in the base, and neither Ruri nor Rei had much ammo left. Having never been in the base before, Ruri was mostly following behind Rei and keeping her eyes trained on every doorframe that they came across.

"I don't like this, it's too easy," Ruri finally whispered softly. Turning around, Ruri walked with her back to Rei. Her brain was finally starting to break down under the relentless strain of the virus, but it was hardly noticeable. "And how can we be sure he will be making his way to the lab area like you think?" she hated questioning Rei but Ruri was a creature of logic.

Following the green line on the floor that lead to the labs, Rei's hands felt clammy and moist. Her body itched and burned with adrenaline and anticipation, a fight was coming. Having learned her lesson far to painfully at the bookstore, the First Child was not going to fail like that again. "I heard the initial radio recording the Red's made concerning Shinji's escape. He was found heading into the labs and was chased out," Rei nodded to her logic.

Firing a dart at a woman in a lab coat that stepped out of a restroom, Ruri smirked as the woman collapsed. "But you're really just going off a hunch through right? I agree that it sounds logically that he'd be returning to a place he was chased out of before. But the question remains, what would a male want from a laboratory when he could be dominated by us?" Ruri's eyes popped open wide as the shock of what she just said reverberated in her skull akin to a rubber ball thrown by Hercules.

Catching the verbal slip, Rei hissed softly and closed her eyes. _She's losing herself, I might have to let her go first or she'll be useless to me._ Rei hated wasting good material, and Ruri was cut from her very own cloth. "Shinji is a clever boy, maybe he hopes to make something that will give him power over us. Maybe he wants to dominate and not be dominated," not that Rei minded as long as it was Shinji's sword administering. "Nice shot by the way," she added.

Already reloading her dart gun, Ruri nodded with the faintest of grins. "Red's are totally uncoordinated now. Whatever happened with the factions must have really been something," with the main power still off it was a testament to the powers of female kind. "Though the emergency lights do make it hard to navigate in this place," uneasiness crept into her as they moved closer to the end of the hall.

"Labs have their own power supply too, so he wouldn't have deviated from his plan," Rei stated to alleviate any growing fear in Ruri. Sliding the door to the main labs open with the muzzle of her gun, Rei pressed her back against the wall next to the door. "Take the other side, he might be planning an ambush," or Attim was and that's what Rei was really uncertain about.

Proving that just because she was a deadpan geek didn't mean she couldn't be graceful, Ruri spun quickly and fluidly from Rei's side to the far side of the door. "Can we take him while he's asleep? I mean we can rush him and knock him out…the male body can still respond to stimuli while asleep," Ruri's pulse hammered in her veins. Taking a quick peek in the room, Ruri saw nothing of interest and no movement.

Parroting Ruri's actions, Rei stole a glance inside the lab. A machine in the center of the room was distilling some amber fluid into a container, but nothing else of concern. "I would think you'd rather he be awake for the event," Rei was able to mask her growing grief. Ruri was almost to far gone, but they were so close! She didn't want to betray her loyal number 2 so close to the finish line! _But if she loses it before I can deal with Attim it could ruin everything! _A quandary of epic proportions, a Shinji sandwich with her and Ruri as the bread, have him for herself, or have nothing as Attim bested her as Ruri salivated mindlessly.

Fighting to maintain her senses, Ruri began to shake and quiver uncontrollably. "Rei…I-I-I'm having a hard time thinking straight…I need him now…I cannot wait any longer…I'm BURNING!" Ruri slipped. Rushing into the room with reckless abandon, the platinum bombshell of loli frantically searched the room. "Where are you tasty boy…where are you?" Ruri sang as she tossed papers and lab equipment around.

In the vent above Ruri, Shinji was rudely woken from his fever dream by the raving. It was the same odd dream he had been having for weeks now. It was of faceless women offering him the world, the universe, heaven, hell, or a nice secluded place in nowhere if only he agreed to be theirs. His dimming vision could still clearly see that the girl, Ruri he remembered, was in a very fetching form fitting black sneak suit. The important thing however was she was dangerously near the cure and if she destroyed it now he wouldn't be very happy.

With as much stealth as he could muster, the last free man, inched the vent open so he could get a shot at the girl with his good arm. "If she's not alone though…" he'd give his position away and that would really screw the whole 'secret' thing up. But with no other choice he propped his numb hand into the grate to keep it open as he steadied his shot. "I can't risk her destroying it," he sucked his breath in to keep his aim straight.

And Rei shot Ruri from the doorway.

"Sorry my sister, but maybe I can help you recover after I get him," Rei mournfully groaned. Unknowingly being viewed by a very captivated and mesmerized Shinji, Rei gripped Ruri by the ankles and drug the girl out of the lab. Taking her partner in crime to an adjacent lab, Rei laid the girl on an examination bed and took the girl's hand. "Maybe after I've broken him in, I can get him to cure you," she owed Ruri more than that. Ruri was the second real friend Rei had, and while Shinji would always be higher the new girl would be close behind.

Heading back into the lab, Rei found a locker to steal herself inside of to wait for her prize. Unfortunately for the albino hiding only works when you're not being watched, which she was. And while Rei kept her eyes pealed on the door, the eyes in the vent were planning on a way to deal with her.

X- Rei at least TRIED to share –X

From the command station, Misato and Urd watched the events unfold in the labs. They watched as the teen duo made their way through the mostly dim halls of Nerv thanks to Urd magically infusing the station with power. "I knew that girl would be a problem, but I didn't expect her to make it this far," Misato said with something akin to appreciation.

"Want me to take her out?" Urd asked as she arched a bolt of lighting from one hand to the other. Having gleamed a fraction of Misato's plan the day before, Urd saw everything that Misato had worked out, and it gave her pleasant feelings. "It'd be my gift to you for letting me be apart of this," she was all too eager to see this end as Misato planned. In a very nice room with an extra large bed and a lot of energy drinks.

Walking away from the console, Misato made her way to an elevator that would take the pair down to the end game. "Ayanami's been a pain in my side since the beginning. Somehow she has always been there thumbing her nose at me," Misato was still a little sad to see her nemesis so painfully exposed. If she had to do battle with Rei before the final showdown with Attim, Misato had hoped it would have been a little more dramatic. "So no, she is mine to deal with, but be careful of that little gun of hers," she said as she checked her stun gun.

Chuckling, Urd let a magical draft flow out of her and ruffle her hair and make both Misato and her clothing billow. "I don't think I have anything to worry about from that little toy of hers," her haughtiness was paramount. "Goddesses such as myself aren't so weak that something a mortal makes will effect us," the half demoness said without knowing Washu created the serum.

Hitting the button, Misato wasn't disappointed when nothing happened. "Be a dear and do something about this Urd-chan?" she pointed at the floor of the elevator. Moments later the lights flickered on and the pair felt the jerking motion kick in. "Thanks," she patted Urd's cheek softly. "Though I do have a question for you, my powerful Grey ally," Misato was considering her alternatives regarding the wayward Grey.

Old memories of Misato from the past bubbled up in Urd's mind. "Ask away Misa-chan?" Keiichi's college friend had always been welcome at the temple, but once graduation hit and Nerv took Misato's time that friendship started to whither. _Well us double teaming that boy will be a nice friendship rekindler I would suppose. _Urd's cheeks flushed at the notion of just what lay in store for them.

"Why are you helping me when you could be with your sister and Keiichi? I knew you had some feelings for him, and I'm sure Bell would share him with you," Misato suspected Belldandy would be apprehensive at first but the girl was just to nice. "Hell you could have any man you wanted, being you could teleport into the vault of men, but here you stand with me going after…" Misato still couldn't bring herself to say Shinji's name.

Wrapping her arms around Misato's waist, Urd hugged her friend from behind. "For starters I've missed you. We had some crazy times, before obligation took you from us," Urd rested her head on Misato's shoulder. "Two, I saw what you planned and I like it. And three, I trust your judgment in men. Keiichi…being with him would be a lie. He loves Bell even if she's draining his life out of him via snuggle time."

Heart lurching in her chest, Misato felt her kinship with Urd raise. "We did have some fun back then didn't we? You're the only person I know that can drink me under the table, and teasing Keiichi was almost as fun as teasing…" she stopped again. The elevator dinged and the door opened. Gently disengaging herself from Urd's embrace, "Lets go take care of that kid and find our prize."

"Yeah I think a little skinship with that boy will really rekindle some memories," Urd quipped following close behind. Stepping over the fallen tech that Ruri had shot before, the Goddess wistfully gazed at Misato as memories of simpler times made themselves apparent. "And yes I'll let you have some private time with that boy you love," what bothered Urd was why Misato completely refused to say Shinji's name. It was as if Misato was afraid of it, or afraid of what the boy would think knowing of Misato's wishes.

Her face a charming cherry red, Misato gave the lab a quick once over in case of any changes. "Ok, here is the plan. You go in and stand in the open. Knowing Ayanami, she'll sneak attack you with those darts. And since your sure they won't affect you it will give me a chance to get in and take her out," Misato pulled her stun gun out and checked the charge level. It would be good for three shots, well more than enough.

Winking at Misato, Urd sauntered into the lab with her traditional flourish. "Ikari-chan, are you hiding in here?" she drawled out seductively. They knew Shinji was near, his exact location suspect, but he was defiantly nearby. Walking to the large machine in the room, Urd saw a vile of amber liquid and felt its power radiating outward. "What do we have here?" she marveled as only a potion-maniac could.

Acting just as Misato predicted, Rei erupted from the locker and fired two darts in Urd's direction. The first was mainly to force Urd to move…into the second. "Sorry, you're in the way," Rei's feral smile was beautiful and horrifying. As her target performed beautifully, Rei felt the same elation she felt when the took out the sailor senshi as the second dart jutted into Urd's right breast.

"Easy on the merchandize kiddo, these are a matched set of the most perfect design," Urd chuckled as she pulled the dart out and dropped it on the ground. "Hate to break it to you but…" her statement was cut short as Washu's serum worked its magic on the goddess and she crumpled to the ground.

"URD!" Misato forgoing stealth bellowed as she charged at Rei. Seeing her friend fall to the ground, a stanch difference to what she was expecting, Misato could only think Rei found something more lethal to use. Firing her stun gun at the damned albino, Misato grunted as the two studs just missed. "What did you do to her, child? Why are you even here? Shouldn't you be off whoring yourself on the television?" Misato pressed her attack.

Spinning around Misato's frontal charge, Rei put her foot square on Misato's back and shoved with all her might. "I didn't expect to see the old hag here, I was expecting M-Zack," Rei said coolly. Despite her countenance, Rei was set off her stride with Misato's arrival. It wasn't part of her plan, Misato was supposed to be with the other factions now! "And I'm here to take what is mine, as for that," Rei nudged Urd with her foot, "Was just in my way."

Hitting the recall button on the stun gun, Misato circled around Rei like an animal would. "Funny, I was thinking the same about you. Backstabbers like you though don't get to far alone…shame that other girl didn't know the truth about you," Misato rubbed Rei's apparent betrayal in the girl's face. A split second later, Misato dropped to the floor as Rei fired several volleys at her. "Hit a nerve did I?" she mocked.

Rushing the prone figure, Rei fired wildly at Misato blinded by anger. "She lost herself! If we only got to Shinji quicker she would have been fine and I wouldn't have had to do that!" Missing again and again Rei finally cornered Misato against a wall. "No more floor…no more hiding…its time I end this," Rei emotionlessly stated as she aimed at Misato's head.

"No, it is time I ended this," Attim announced as she phased through the wall Misato had rolled against. In two deft moves, Attim hit pressure points on both schemers and the enraged and single minded women were unconscious on the floor. "That was easier than I expected" she stood up and hoisted both women off the floor and laid them on counters in the lab. "Now we play the waiting game," she sat with crossed legs and gazed up at the vent Shinji was hiding behind.

X- Doesn't it suck to lose to the sub-boss at the end of a game? –X

Plugging the USB adapter into the outlet, Kensuke felt a trickle of moisture run down his cheek. All the men were standing behind him and cheering for him. So if he screwed up he was going to be surrounded by a lot of pissed off men. _Maybe I should have kept my mouth shut until AFTER I got this working._ But it was to late for second guesses now. "Touji, please tell me that creepy guy with the black sunglasses isn't watching us?" he pleaded.

"The dude from Nerv? Yeah he's watching with just about every other guy here, so don't mess up alright?" Touji cheerfully patted Kensuke on the back. After waking up, and finding Kensuke obsessed with something that wasn't an Eva or porn got Touji interested. On hearing it was a potential way of opening the gates, he let out a triumphant roar and let the cat out of the bag. "How long will this take to work?" he quipped as Kensuke nearly fell over.

Bypassing the doors latent firewall and proxies, Kensuke's fingers were numb. "We-we should know almost instantly if I can get passed all the security," and that was a big if. He'd already hacked through three false entries, several redundancy viruses, and one potentially game breaking logarithm. "And…one more…" he whimpered as he tried accessing the door override controls.

Emergency klaxons fired up, red warning lights flashed alive and spun as an ear splitting grinding echoed in the vault. Although heavily damaged and off its railing, the heavy security door sparked as it forced itself open. It didn't move far before the motors shorted out with a mighty explosion that shook the men to the ground. Kensuke's laptop fell with a screen breaking consequence, but they felt the cold pre-morning air fill the room.

The door was open enough for them to get out!

Filling the whole structure with a chorus of victory cheers, the men were finally free! And it was time to ask the women just what the hell they were thinking in letting them stay trapped so long.

At the forefront of the crowd, Touji and Kensuke were the first males to escape the vault and step into the open air. "Ok…what the hell happened here?" Touji asked as he took in the sight of nearly all of the women of Tokyo-3 laying unconscious in front of the vault. "Why are they girls here…a lot of them are almost nude…and the devil and that freaky robot are in a pit almost on top of one another," Touji rubbed at his head in confusion.

Mechanically pulling out his camera, Kensuke was going to take pictures to commemorate the oddity only to have Touji knock it out of his hand. "Something strange was going on…I mean look at them! They all have arm bands on and…oh look some are starting to wake up." Kneeling by a woman he'd seen before, a very attractive blond, Kensuke shook Ritsuko's shoulder. "Ma'am, what the hell happened here?" he asked.

Several more men started to move closer to the exit, but the whole queerness of the scene stalled them. Was it a virus? Where the women contagious or even dangerous?

Ritsuko answered that question by dive tackling Kensuke to the ground and pinning him down. "Meat…fresh meat!" the good insane doctor licked her lips as she clenched her prey tighter.

"GET THIS CRAZY THING OFF ME!" Kensuke with all the bravery he could muster cried. Racking back and forth to free himself, Kensuke was never gladder to have Touji as a friend than he was as the jock shoved the crazed woman off him. "Get back inside! Something is going on here and its not good!" the geek screamed at the approaching men as more women started to wake up and eerily turn towards the shelter.

Nobody questioned it, they just pulled back inside the shelter and the great battle to keep the insane women out began.

X- If only they knew – X

Walking around the lab, Attim just took in everything around the room. "Are you going to continue hiding in that vent, Shinji, or are you going to come out?" she called out. "You're displacing weight on the structure, I can see you," she announced. She wouldn't risk a frontal assault on the vent to get him, it would be to risky as she might crush him. "I have a few questions for you, mainly why you'd come into the lions den. If Katsuragi hadn't made quick work of things, this place would be crawling with agents."

Sitting in a chair in front of the cure, Attim didn't take her eyes off the vent. "Playing coy, you learned my lessons very well," the words rolled off her tongue playfully. Without looking, she opened the bay and snatched the container of the cure and held it before her eyes. "Whatever this stuff is, it must be very important to warrant such danger in coming for it," a lecherous smile fell to her beautiful full lips. Sliding the foot long cylindrical vial down the front of her exposed chest she nestled Shinji's goal in her cleavage.

Wincing painfully, Shinji forced is aching body to comply with Attim's demands. She was holding the very cure for her problem hostage, and she knew he was hiding. "Don't do anything to that please," he begged as he dropped hard to the ground. With only one had to steady himself he almost didn't make the landing. With Attim more than half the room away from him, Shinji had to think fast. "I want that vial, M-Zack-san, what can I do to get it from you?" he could hope Washu came up with something as he stalled.

As if reading his mind, "First off take that little bud from your ear…or I'll see if I can shatter this with what your nerdy friend was fixated on," Attim purred as she flexed her assets. "Good…good…" she cooed as she watched Shinji take the bud out of his ear. He looked horrible, pained, dirty, and sick but Attim couldn't be sure it wasn't a ploy to set her off. Subterfuge had been one of her pupil's best learned skills. "Now what is this?" she ran her finger suggestively down the vial.

Shuttering as Washu had just about had an idea for him, Shinji was left alone with his brain seared with fever. "It's a cure for what's wrong with all of you. All I have to do is pour it into that machine and everybody will be better again," no use lying about it he had neither the ability nor strength to lie. Lifting his gauntlet up he pointed it meekly at his teacher. _I never was able to beat her even when I didn't feel so horrible! How am I supposed to do it now that I'm like this? _But an idea hit him…and it disgusted him so much he almost vomited.

"Wrong with us? There is nothing wrong with me, my dear pupil. Nothing that a little pill of yours couldn't fix. I never did teach you how to seduce and shag secrets out of your enemies did I? Well I can fix that now," Attim stood and started circling around Shinji with a very different type of hunger in her eyes. "You really want this…" she caressed the vial again, "…don't you? Well why don't you come and get it?" If he was sick…if he wasn't faking…she'd kill him! Her mind waged a war against itself, part wanted to throw caution to the wind and take him right here, the other wanted to make sure he wasn't hurt, protect him, and care for him.

"For the greater good," Shinji nodded as he spoke. He'd not like himself in the morning, but he had no choice now. Fighting Attim would be pointless, he could hardly hold his arm up at this point. "Y-you're right…I do want it…and not just that. You're so beautiful Attim," he said truthfully. Attim was a gorgeous woman, with a childlike and wonderful heart. Shinji could see himself loving a woman like that. Taking two halting steps closer towards her, he dropped his arm down and knocked the gauntlet off and let it fall to the floor. He had one last dart hidden in his pocket just in case…and he was glad he did now.

He was defenseless! He was offering himself to her! Her! The failed experiment! Written off as basically useless from day one! A sad and terrified little girl who had been saved, if only momentarily by this boy before her. Tears cascading down her face, "I longed for this since you saved me before the DNA sequencing changed me!" She rushed the boy and threw her arms around him. Peppering his face with kisses, she didn't wouldn't allow herself to notice that Shinji wasn't acting hurt, he really was.

"It was you…I didn't believe it till now…I'm so sorry I didn't work harder to see you were safe," Shinji's biggest regret was hugging him. He kicked himself over and over again believing he failed that girl. "Attim, I'm so sorry I didn't do more for you," he used his good hand to hug the woman as best he could. "A-and after everthing gets better…we'll have all the time to get to really know each other sensei," but when he said that she stiffened in his hold.

Pulling back from the agonizingly warm body, "I don't have long for this world…how Nerv made me…will end me well before you die. But while I live you and I will…" she dove in. It was to much, ambrosia would have tasted poor in comparison to this moment. She knew she had to stop, see to his wounds and treat his illness, but her body wouldn't respond as she wanted. It needed to feel more, touch more, and embrace more! Her hands wrapped around that weakened body and held firm…and in doing so sealed her fate.

He wanted to say how sad he felt to hear that, wanted to say that maybe Washu could do something, but with Attim's tongue lodged firmly in his mouth it made speaking a little hard. And as horrible he felt, this moment was peaceful and wonderful. But it had to end, he could feel the vial pressed against his chest as Attim was fixated on fulfilling the virus's goals. Dropping his hand into his pocket, he grabbed that last dart. _I'll make it all up to you Attim. I'll make amends for failing you! _ But he couldn't do that with her like this…and with a snake strike jerk he jabbed the dart into Attim's alabaster calf and she slumped on top of him.

Laying the woman as gently on the ground as he could, Shinji felt his breath coming out shallower and shallower. His vision was getting darker and it was so dreadfully hard to breathe. _I guess…I guess this is what it feels like to be dying. _His body was giving out on him, the small vial he pulled out from Attim's ample chest was almost impossible to hold, it was so heavy. Shuffling over to the port, Shinji took one deep breath and his lungs exploded in pain. Whatever was wrong with him was finishing the job it started, but no matter he was successful!

Pouring the amber liquid into the port, Shinji used the last of his strength to hit the start sequence. Falling to the ground as the machine whirred to life, a simple smile befell the boy as drew his legs in close to his chest. _I did it! They'll get better! Maybe they'll forgive me for…_and his eyes closed as sleep fell over him

X- And a last minute touchdown steals the victory from the women! –X

"So how is the hero of the day?" Hild asked as she strolled around Washu's lab. Two days after waking from her virus induced sleep, Hild was mortified to see Shinji lying in a tube next to hers. The boy, her boy, appeared thinner, pale, and just about one step away from her palace in hell. "Still amazed he lasted the whole time without stepping into the graces of physical bliss," she ran her fingers across Shinji's tube.

Sauntering over to her leader, Morrigan's head wings fluttered playfully. "Shin-baby is going to be better in a day or so thanks to Crabs little technological marvels," the succubus had been the one to feel Shinji's light start to flicker. In a daze, she flew through the corridors of Nerv, not hurting anybody, and scooped up the boy and took him to Washu as she felt a part of her dying. "As for the lil girl, she's fixing that tasty crumpet of a personal guard of his," Morrigan added.

"I can hear you, you inane floozy!" Washu yelled over her shoulder. Fixing the city and making the necessary modifications to the memories of the people was taking far longer than Washu wanted. Added to the mix was a very paternal fear for Shinji's safety. "And, Hild, Shinji just about didn't make it in many ways. Had that damn bat-head not gotten to him when she died, he very well might have died."

Stretching her arms, Tsunami yawned bored, "It wouldn't have come to that if you hadn't sealed me away, sister." The goddess of nature hadn't taken to kindly to being sealed away just for wanting a little nookie. In hindsight and cured of the virus's effects, the part of the Goddess that was Sasami was mortified at her brazen actions, but was still a little sad to miss out.

"Don't get me started on you Sasami…Tsunami…both of you!" Washu raged as she found yet another packet of women that were still infected. The men had been easy to take care of. The healing waters pumped in through the shelters sprinklers knocked them all out, and it was a simple matter of implanting the memory that the women were also locked in their vault due to a timing glitch. "You knew had to have been able to cure yourself of that little virus, but you LET yourself be controlled by it. Now don't get me wrong, I want you banging that kid and popping out super children for me, but you have to stay on EARTH!"

Watching a pair of goddesses responsible for creating not only herself but the universe, Hild was stunned at how childish they were. "Are you telling us, that this creature here allowed herself to be controlled rather than help us protect the city?" Maternal instincts were a bitch to fight against, and Hild's were flaring. Her newfound son almost died! And one of the pillars of creation didn't lift a finger because it wanted a quickie! "Morrigan, stop me before I kill myself by attacking that thing!"

"Why? Let me help you…because it's no less crazy to attack her than to do what she did!" Morrigan was already summoning her soul powered weapons of mass destruction. "I'm not sad at all about groping her in her sleep now…it's the only touching she'll ever have!" nice feel too from the heft of it.

Turning to the demonic agents, Sasami balled her fists and thrust them down childishly. "I only wanted what I couldn't have otherwise! As royalty I cannot just have relations with commoners! Once we are wed it would be a different matter, but until then I have to abide by decorum and responsibility!" and those put a real hindrance on fun and frivolity. "And what about Konako! She didn't do a damn thing either! She just tried getting that Keitaro person away from the other residents of that inn they live at!"

Keitaro didn't know what happened to the girls at Hinata, but the stopped thinking he was a pervert and started turning the old place into a real Love Hotel. Granny Hina's plan worked wonderfully.

Ramming her fingers through her hair, Washu screamed in frustration. "If you three don't stop bickering about who wanted to hide the sausage in whose bun I swear to all things I've created I will do 'things' to you!" She didn't know what things, but she'd make sure they didn't like it. "That damn student of mine really messed up that M-Zack girl's genetic pattern! Fixing it and giving her a normal lifespan while not detracting her powers is a real thunder cun…"

"Where am I?" Shinji asked weakly as he pushed the lid of his capsule open. "Did…did I survive?" he quipped as he didn't see the pearly gates but did see two demons standing over him. Maybe I died and Mama-Hild is already moving me into her old place?

Grabbing both Sasami/Tsunami and Morrigan by their necks, Hild held the would be glompers. "Bad girls, no treat for you! He's too weak for that kind of affection right now," Hild dropped to sulking women and sashayed to her boy. "You should be sleeping little man, you've a lot of healing to do," she chastised him and ruffled his hair playfully. "Gave us a real scare, but you did your job wonderfully my boy," she forced herself not to hug him…her strength might have caused a few problems.

Letting out a sigh of relief as the women didn't attempt to force themselves on him any longer, Shinji took it as golden that he succeeded. "I will, but tell me first. How are things?" his eyes felt as if they were being pulled down by Kos-Mos, but rest could wait until after he validated things.

"Nope, we abandoned Earth, and we're taking you to be our boytoy for all eternity," Washu joked as she put the last of the commands in to automate the last of the repair work. "Seriously though, by end of day tomorrow, everybody will be back to the normal. The normal people will not likely remember what happened, as for the more unique specimens running around they're likely to either remember all of it, or remember in time," Washu couldn't remove memories, but she could add new ones to make the old seem like a dream.

Taking a timid step closer to her fiancé, watchful of the over protective mother hen Hild was gearing up to be, Sasami bashfully tugged at Shinji's arm. "I…want to apologize for what happened, Shinji-sama. I should have fought harder," whether she meant to capture him or help him was left to the imaginations of those in the room. "From now on, I shall endeavor to better assist you," she bowed lightly.

"Like hell you will," Washu chimed in as she hopped off her invisible chair. "Thanks to your increased power usage, you're permanently stuck as you are now. And last I checked they don't let goddesses that look like twenty year old super models into junior high schools," it would be a hard adjustment. Washu couldn't do anything to revert Sasami and Tsunami's merging. They were one entity now, forever melded into a perfect union of both.

Running her hand down Sasami's arm, Hild nodded sagely. "You can't live in our house, but you can live next to us if you want. My boy here has plenty of guardians now…Morrigan will have to come with me back to hell for a few more weeks however, but he does not have concubines yet." And Sasami looked like she'd be a very highly trained one.

"C-Concubines!" Shinji and Sasami both exclaimed at the concept. Sasami fainted away while Shinji sat up rigidly and nearly knocked his head against the roof of his capsule.

Playfully punching Shinji in the arm, "Of course concubines. What fun is their in not having a few dozen or so lovers to ease the days stress away. If you want I can bring a few of the fledgling succubus back with me to get you and them started?" As a demon, Hild really didn't see a problem with it. "Or would you prefer to choose them? I don't know your taste in women well enough," a mother's work was never done.

Laying back down, Shinji just pulled the capsule closed again and hoped he wasn't blushing red all over his entire body. "I'm going back to sleep now…" he'd worry about just what having a demonic mother meant later.

Giggling, Washu just activated the sleeping system to insure Shinji didn't wake again until he was well. "Think we should have told him he was nude the whole time?" it was cute how he didn't notice, but it did take a lot of Sasami's willpower to not stare.

"I'm enjoying the view," Morrigan said in all honesty. "And do I have to go back with you so soon Hild-sama?" she really would have liked to stay topside a little longer.

Before Hild could re-affirm her wish that Morrigan be fully examined to learn what Shinji's blood had done to her, Washu let out an ear shattering scream. "Oh hell no! Misaki and Funaho's ship is closing in on earth! Quick HIDE SHINJI AND SASAMI…HIDE ME!!!"

X- Parental visits arc begins now! –X

Author notes

Yup that's the end of the virus arc and the hint at the next. Its parents week in Tokyo-3 junior high and a lot of strange people will be showing up! It won't be as large as the virus arc, 3 or 4 chaps, but it should be good for a laugh!

Ja Mata

Zentrodie (zentrodie-dot-geo-at-yahoo-dot-com)


	41. Say Hello to MOMMY

Standard Disclaimer

Well another arc to start and more of this oddity I created. Seriously its just a collection of small ideas that would never make a 'full story' and my story to write when I can't think of something bigger…but somehow its become something different. Oh well hope you enjoy

X-X

What We Make of It

Chapter 41 – Say Hi to mommy

Or

Misaki is crazy

Laying on his new bed of two days, Shinji wondered where his capacity for breathing went. Floating above his bed was a very scantly clad demonic princess and to his right was an equally almost nude save for what looked like dental floss Ayanami Rei. "W-w-what is going on here?" he finally managed to squeak out. Fears that the virus had resurged in them and he was soon to have unspeakables done to him mounted.

"Step-mama Hild said that we could only see you if we dressed like this," Asuka hissed as a stream of fire nearly cooked Shinji's face on accident. Being a grey meant Asuka remembered everything she had tried doing during her virus induced lust-rage. "And I wanted to apologize again for nearly destroying your city," she wouldn't apologize for wanting to play 'horsy' because that's what demons liked doing.

Having just finished reading 'Kanokon' Rei was in full tease mode. "You're adopted mother has very peculiar taste in clothing," Rei tugged on the strap of her very revealing bikini. "And I too wanted to apologize for getting you hurt, trying to seduce you, oh and wanting to ride you till I broke your spine," the bit did elicit a blush from both humans.

Doing a nearly inhuman job of keeping his libido in check insight of such wondrously sinful designs, Shinji sighed. "Mama-Hild does have unique tastes," but his time with the woman was healing vast scores of psychological abandonment issues. "But um…I have to get up so could you two…give me some privacy?" Shinji squirmed under his blanket as he shifted to hide a standard morning inconvenience.

Lowering her floating, Asuka gave Rei an evil eye, "Tell nobody you saw this," demons had to adhere to a certain degree of evil. Kissing Shinji lightly on the cheek, Asuka teleported back to her home, next door to Hild's rather spacious home. The damage she had done to the city had made her mother proud, but Asuka was ashamed that she lost control. Her mind kept repeating the simple fact that if she had gotten to Shinji, she would have killed him. That fact terrified her.

"For a demon, Soryu is a softie," Rei said softly as she too graced Shinji's cheek with a feather light touch. "I will see you at school today, if you would like we could eat lunch together?" Rei's true emotions showing through the manga infused 'party girl' persona. Her only true regret is that Ruri hardly remembered her, but she could try to rekindle the friendship. "I do not recommend making your mother wait to long, she appeared to have made food for you," Hild had gushed sappily when both Asuka and Rei attempted to sneak into Shinji's room.

Rubbing is cheeks, Asuka's kiss had been hot while Rei's was wet, Shinji's smile was twofold. "Thanks Ayanami-chan, I'll see you later," he waved as the girl walked out of the room. Realizing that he did have people who honestly cared about him was still new to him, but he accepted it now and the responsibility it demanded. The other reason his face was almost split in two was the simple fact that Hild was playing the part of mother very well and it warmed his heart impossibly.

Slipping into his school uniform, Shinji let out a yawn as he stepped out of his still mostly empty room, Kos-Mos was still repairing in his closet. "Mama-Hild, did you really make Asuka and Ayanami dress like that to see me?" he asked as he entered the dining room with its small four seat table. Taking his seat across from his adopted mother, her warmth still astonished him.

"Of course I did," the CEO of hell said without batting one of her long eyelashes. Taking a page for Belldandy's book, Hild learned how to cook for her loved ones. "Those two will make wonderful concubines for you, oh and that Katsuragi woman once she finally accepts her feelings," Hild did like Misato a lot. Reclining in her chair Hild felt the simple bliss of parenthood, a feeling she had long missed having with Urd. All things in time however.

His chopsticks dropped from his limp fingers, "Mama-Hild I thought that concubine thing was a joke…that you were teasing me!" Hild was worse at times than Misato at teasing, mainly because Shinji was never sure if Hild actually meant what she said. As for Misato, Shinji couldn't shake the pains of abandonment. _I have to apologize to Misato-san. I feel like I just dropped her, but its strange. I don't feel the same 'motherly vibe' with Misato as I do Hild. _Both Shinji and Misato had transcended that and were approaching something more akin to romance and not familiar love.

"Of course I meant it! No son of mine is going to go wanting for companionship. Especially not when so many would easily make wishes to have you, Hell's market share would explode if I allowed girls to make wishes for you," Hild stated. The number of demonic wishes that had flooded the system had caused a halt to be placed on any wish related to Shinji Ikari, Hild's first real interaction with the boy she'd later call son. "And since my sweat little step-daughter already pledged her soul to you, it's not like she isn't already your concubine," Hild finished eating her standard Japanese breakfast.

Numbly groping for his displaced chopsticks, Shinji's mind and body were polarized. "That's just…isn't it wrong to treat people like that?" his classical thought pattern was very upset at the audacity of this conversation. The standard was for a couple was made of two people, not a horde. "And what about Sasami? If I'm engaged to her, I can't really have others can I?" he finally grabbed his sticks and started eating.

"One, that Jurai girl is of a race that allows its royalty to have cluster marriages," Hild gathered her plates in a neat stack. "And two since I'm your mother you have certain demonic privileges and one thing that allows is for you to have concubines. It's nothing to be nervous about, hun." It was just sex with women he loved, no biggie. "Oh and before you head off to that school of yours I have a few things to fill you in on," she gestured to a small oaken door that lead to a closet.

On the secret command, Tira and Chocolate opened the door and joined the happy family. "You called for us, Hild-sama?" the Misu sisters asked in unison as they bowed. Chocolate gave the boy a wink as Tira nearly fell over. "Or was it Shin-chan that is needing our care?"

"Mama-Hild?" Shinji pushed back in his chair slightly. He remembered the women from his brief meeting with them ages ago, but why they were here was beyond him. Combining the fact that two attractive women just walked into the room after Hild mention concubines, Shinji was fearful of a correlation. "W-what did you have to tell me?" he swallowed hard.

Pouting sexily as only Hild could do, "Do to my position, I won't always be here when you get home. Things like random possessions, destroying small worlds, or hosting awards shows are part of the CEO title. When I can't be here, Tira and Chocolate will tend do you as your servants," Hild had scored the Misu sisters souls in exchange for their continued use of magic in a world that didn't support it. "Oh and on that matter you'll hear about later in that charming little school of yours," Hild's eyes narrowed suspiciously, "I'd not miss it for this world."

"What about school?" Shinji asked without any knowledge of what Hild was saying. He could take his eyes off the Misu sisters' and their French maid outfits. "And what about Morrigan? I thought you said she'd be here too?" his connection to Morrigan was still confusing, but he didn't want to lose it.

"And here you sounded like you didn't want concubines," Hild teased as she gestured for the sisters to leave. "You'll find out later, a spy of mine filled me in this morning. And as for Morrigan-chan, she's indisposed right now," Hild was having the succubus being retrained to not suck souls doing coitus. "Now run along or you'll be late, and tell Misa-chan hi!" Hild waved as Shinji gave his adopted mother a peck on the cheek and ran off to school.

X- Hild would be a very scary mother –X

"Washu-chan, isn't their something we can do about me going to school again?" Sasami moaned as she watched Shinji exiting his new home and heading off. Having spent the last few days helping the diminutive crab lover fix a few loose ends in covering up the virus, Sasami hoped Washu would reward her. "You have to have some sort of device that will mask my new body," not that Sasami wanted her betrothed to NOT see her far more alluring form.

Having heard Sasami begging nearly constantly for days, Washu had learned to tune her sister out. "Are you sure you want to do that? Can't you just be happy living in a dimensional pocket linked to his closet?" Washu asked as she hacked the CDC in the United States correlate with the cover story. _Maybe I should tell Sasami that Funaho and Misaki are coming_. But until the Goddess of Technology had an escape plan, Sasami WAS the escape plan.

Twirling her mighty ponytail in her hands, Sasami sulked but didn't like to complain. It had been her own mistake that lead to her combining with Tsunami. While the Goddess part of her wanted to make up for a lot of lost time, Sasami was still to timid to act on it. "Those other girls though will get a firmer hold on him! You saw what that demon was doing this morning, and don't pretend you weren't watching him!" Sasami had spied Washu observing Shinji on more than one occasion.

Caught red handed, Washu did what she always did when backed into a corner, claim it was all part of her plan. "Yeah, I'm watching him. I mean his offspring with you would be wonder children, but maybe a demonic sub-branch could be just as nice," and if Shinji was what she was postulating it might not matter WHAT the other DNA was. "And just like your mother has a co-wife, are you thinking you'll buck that trend?" the current ruler of Jurai was seen as odd for having only two wives.

"I can't believe you want him and…what will you DO with children anyway?" Sasami thrust her arms down appalled by Washu's openness. "And I'd like to be the only one. And if I can make a big enough impression maybe I can be," she went back to stroking her hair. Tsunami was relishing physical contact to things again. Being a creature of pure mind power and illusion had been really lacking in the touch-factor.

Scoffing the temporarily weakened Attim limped into the main lab, "That's a tall order. Because I think the legion of other women would oppose you at every turn, especially when they learn that he's not technically off the market." Personally she'd never reveal her own desires to be with him, even knowing that Washu had given her a longer life. As his personal bodyguard her near killing of him with unwanted affection was a real blemish on her record.

"Ah, Attim, you and those stupid large breasts of yours will be free to go in a day or so. The nanites in your bloodstream will have finished recoding your genetic structure. Damn I'm good, not only do you keep your broken abilities, but you'll not even appear to age for the next seventy to eighty years!" Washu chorused as she flipped the bird to the metaphysical representation of time and aging.

Looking down at her own kimono clad bust, Sasami still felt a pang of jealousy. Her new body was something close to perfection, but Tsunami's body lacked Attim's two tactical advantages. "Now Shinji-sama won't have to feel bad about that little failure in his past that you caused," the war against the most dangerous foe had begun and Sasami wasn't pulling punches. Knowing that of all the women Shinji knew, Attim was one of the two closest to the man with Morrigan taking up the other spot.

Interrupting the soon to begin catfight, a halo-image thrust itself between the two female combatants. "SASAMI-CHAN MOMMA'S HERE!" Misaki beamed her motherly love via subspace directly into Washu's lab. No other creature in the known universe, save Mihoshi, could ever intrude on Washu's lab. "Funaho-oneesama and I had a small accident on our way that slowed us down," Misaki of course meant Sahaquiel. The royal ship and collided and destroyed the aerial bomb just as Nerv spotted it. The Magi were currently trying to analyze flying interstellar trees.

"M-M-Mommy?" Sasami's face paled ghostly white as her mother's eternal smile scorched her brain. Hearing a weak laugh from Washu, Sasami turned to see the tiny scientist trying to make an escape. Grabbing Washu by her hair, Sasami was not going to let the bitch go. "W-what are you doing here, mommy?" a wicked part of Sasami's mind hoped Attim would make a mistake and mock her for the childish moniker.

Holding up a piece of paper Funaho handed to her, Misaki proudly displayed her reason for arriving. "I was summoned to appear before you class…my my my Sasami-chan you look a bit older, mommy's little girl is turning into a beautiful woman!" Misaki also wanted to inspect the man that she'd agreed would wed her beloved daughter. "Oh and Washu-chan, where is my other daughter?" Misaki asked losing some of her playfulness.

Wondering if she could destroy the Tree-Ship and claim it was an accident, Washu eyed the control panel carefully. "She's off with my daughter and Tenchi, you know those kids and their crazy adventures," Washu's fingers inched closer to the 'oh-shit' button. Before she could do anything though, Misaki pulled another Mihoshi and materialized in the lab a foot away from her.

Crushing not only Washu but Sasami in a hug much akin to Misato's backbreaker, Misaki let them know she held no ill will. "Silly crab, I knew where they were, just wondering if you'd try to lie about it," she chirped as she swung the duo back and forth with her retard-strength. "Now where is this boy of yours?" Misaki asked as she eyed Attim phasing through the ground to avoid her. _I'll get her later_. Misaki knew a lot more than she was letting on.

X- How the king survived to MAKE his daughters with Misaki is unknown –X

"We totally need to hang out sometime soon man," Touji gripped as he practically hung on his desk. He didn't know why, but both Kensuke and he had the overpowering urge to pal around with Shinji more. "Think you can get away from your harem and work long enough to chill with us sometime this week?" the jock ribbed his timid friend.

Shaking his head slowly, Shinji prayed that said 'harem' never heard Touji use that word or the body would never be found. "Well things have been a little more confusing with the whole adoption thing, but I'm sure Mama-Hild wouldn't mind if I hung out with you guys," Shinji did enjoy his male friends. It was an odd memory though when he first told them about Hild. They were devastated that they'd not get to see Misato as much, but when Hild dropped of Shinji's lunch they nearly dropped. "Speaking of Mama-Hild, she mentioned that something was going to happen at school today," he looked around the room suspiciously.

Perplexed at how his bank account had garnered such a large infusion of cash over the last few days, Kensuke was to busy pouring over his laptop to look up. "I haven't heard anything, but my memory of the last week or so is really hazy," he confessed. "My dad mentioned something strange about school too. But with dad I can never be sure if he means what he says or if its code for one of his schemes," Kensuke was happy with the money but he wanted to know the why/how of everything.

"Chiyo-sensei is a lot different than the old man, so who knows what she has planned for us," Touji sat up and shot the young teacher a worried glance. Feeling the gaze of several of the classes females on them, Touji both envied and pitied Shinji for his strange popularity. _We're constantly under the spotlight! They're judging everything we do all the time. How can he live like that! _But luckily it meant he had an unabashed view of such charming faces. "Dude, Tsukino is totally eying you. I swear I don't know why that click of super hotties talk to you, but damn I envy you," the sailor senshi were always flocked around.

Waving back at Usagi's very explosive greeting, Shinji timidly drew behind Touji's larger form. "I said it before, they're just helping me study since I have so little time with Nerv and all," the private meetings were a secret and Shinji intended to keep it that way. "You hear anything from your dad about school, Touji?" the pilot hoped to change topics away from girls. His mind still had a slight 'near death/deflowering' fear of them due to the virus.

Preempting Touji's 'no-idea' Chiyo used her tried and true method of getting the rowdy class's attention. Drawing a nail across the chalkboard, Chiyo was sadistically pleased when the whole class seized up and became complacent. "Before we started class today, I wanted to address a little rumor going around the class today," Chiyo had avoided telling the students by mailing the forms directly to their parents when possible.

In one borg-like voice, "Yes Chiyo-sensei," the students were well trained by the very strict teacher. It didn't matter what Chiyo said, they just agreed to it to avoid more of her unique punishment techniques.

Smiling at the pavlovian response, Chiyo was pleased with her efforts to condition the rambunctious teens. "I sent letters out to your parents or guardians awhile back about the upcoming days," some were a lot harder to reach than others. "Starting tomorrow in an effort to better understand each other and the world around you, your parents will be coming to class to tell us all what they do," she thought it was a good idea. "You will be allowed to ask questions, and answer some as well. You will be on your best behavior for our guests, and if you tell them about my teaching methods…" if it was possible for a short and cute woman to appear more like death incarnate it would have broken the goofy scale.

"HELL NO! I will not let my mamma show up in this classroom!" Asuka rebelled at the thought of Naga the White Serpent appearing before her flesh-bags. Just thinking of Naga's skimpy outfit made Asuka want to wretch. _Mamma just has to flaunt the insufferable mounds of hers! _And Asuka was more than a little embarrassed to let her mother know she'd pledged herself to a mortal. "How did you even contact mamma! She's not of this damn plane!"

Throwing an old style well-pen at Asuka's feet, Chiyo managed to embed the metal tip into the ceramic tile. "Teachers have ways far surpassing normal people, Hime-sama," Chiyo wasn't afraid of a little demonic princess. She had already taught kindergarten in America so she had already saw hell. "And yes, Naga was the first to respond with her desire to show up, well after I said we didn't have any small chested mages in the class," the comment few blissfully over the heads of almost every student.

"Vassal! You are NOT to talk to my mother!" Asuka fired off at Shinji and the pressure of her voice knocked Shinji off his chair. The day was getting worse and worse, if Naga found out about the whole 'scorched earth' deal it might result in her being deported back to hell, and Asuka wasn't about to let that happen. "And you, Wondergirl," Asuka was starting to accept Rei as something of a rival, "You will NOT mention gazpacho to her!" Asuka used the code word for the virus incident as Rei was the only person Asuka knew that remembered.

Exchanging a knowing glance, the sailor senshi agreed to keep their lapse into insanity a secret as well from the world. It was another reason they wanted Shinji to join the group, as he managed to save the city and took absolutely NO credit for it. Ayanami however looked positively evil as she'd read 'Ladies v Butlers' on the way to school and adapted to Tomomi Saikyo. It was going to be fun.

X- Rei is always more fun when evil –X

Now Ritsuko suspected she'd be punished for releasing the near woman-enslaving virus, but she had to admit Washu and Misato had gone a little extreme. "I could get to like this straight-jacket if I could only scratch my nose," she joked as Misato sat down next at her station on the bridge. The jacket was also connected to the chair meaning Ritsuko wasn't going anywhere. "And why are you dressed like a sexy nurse Misato? Day lighting as a stripper?" she joked.

More than a little ashamed of her current attire, Misato was just glad the bridge was empty sans the two of them. With Nerv suffering some medium damage, the base was down to a skeleton crew as repairs were made. "I'm out of clean cloths so I'm wearing a Halloween costume," she hung her head in shame.

"Shinji's only been gone for what a week?" Ritsuko asked incredulously. Hopping in her chair to get closer to her somber friend, Ritsuko didn't know what she should feel regarding Misato. "I know you took the adoption hard, but to not do any laundry? Have you been eating?" Ritsuko put her money on take-out and instant meals.

Leaning back in the chair, her nurse costume ripping a little as Misato put to much pressure on certain parts, she gazed at the ceiling with misty eyes. "More like three days, I dirtied a lot of cloths trying took cook one of the meals he left behind for me. As for the other meals…lets just say I've rekindled my romance with Mr. Cup-Ramen," she let out a pitiful sigh. "I know I wasn't his real mom, but for a while I started to feel like it," but that changed as her feelings matured.

"You could be one of his concubines," Hild said earnestly as she strolled into the bridge as if she owned it. "My boy needs to have some skilled women, and you look like you could suck a golf ball through a garden hose," Hild smirked as she startled the tactical mastermind of Nerv. "Did I startle you, Misa-chan?" she asked as she rubbed Misato's shoulders.

Her body going tense, not really enjoying Hild's petting, Misato pushed away from the demonic leader. "How the hell did you get in the base without us knowing, and why are you here anyway?" Misato still remembered the shame she suffered at Hild's hand at the pageant and the fact that Hild stole Shinji from her. "Because I think we have a reason to arrest you," or at least change certain ownerships.

Giggling lightly, Hild batted at Misato playfully. "Oh you silly woman, I can go wherever I want whenever I want," she let a pulse of her power emanate outward from her body. "That's a good look for you doctor, though I'd have flayed the flesh from your bones for nearly killing my son," Hild's tone inferred great pain into Ritsuko's brain. But a moment later she was back to the bubbly happy woman she was when she first arrived, "As for my visit…well lawyers do love paperwork, they feed on it, and my gaggle of lawmen want Gendo-poo to sign over his son to me," and if he didn't it would be a fun game of hide the pineapple.

"You're here to get the Commander to relinquish his hold on his son?" Ritsuko, despite her higher brain screaming to shut up for the love of living, asked. Throwing her head back laughing as only a restrained mad-scientist could, "If you had brains to match that insipid amount of hair you have, you'd know that bastard uses his son to barter for EVERYTHING! He'll never relinquish him!" Ritsuko saw Gendo sell Shinji on three occasions as a husband to finance Nerv.

Hild's head-star flashed momentarily and Ritsuko vanished from the room. "Ah, much nicer. I think Rits-baby will enjoy playing with the toddlers at the grade school," clapping her hands and turned back to Misato. "Oh and I wasn't joking about the whole concubine thing, Misa-chan. I know you love that boy, and he's starting to realize just what you all mean to him. It might be awhile before you get to ride the machine, but as my child he'll have to learn to handle all his capabilities." Hild had enemies, enemies that would strike at her weak points. Shinji was a big kick me sign for Hild, not that she minded, but she would insure his safety. "Now if you'll excuse me," Hild blew a kiss to the soon to faint Misato and headed into Gendo's office.

Forms were on his desk a full foot high, but Gendo didn't pay them any attention. It was the single paper in front of him that filled him with the most dread. Due to his abandonment of Shinji, a legal loophole allowed some bitch to try and steal him away from him! "I hate that little bastard, but I need him to further my goals!" Gendo stabbed the form with his pen and tore it in half. "I will not give away that ingrate when I have a use for him!" and who cares if technically Shinji was engaged to more than half a dozen women.

"Oh I don't think he's an ingrate at all, Gen-poo," Hild sauntered over to Gendo's desk. Touching the torn paper, Hild mended the legal document stripping Gendo of his son. "He's a very courageous and kind young man, a real heart breaker too," Hild was relishing her decision to adopt more each day. "And I don't like being thought of as a bitch, I'm just doing my job," she leaned over and gave Gendo a sight of the great valley. Knowing he was a pervert meant Hild could toy and play with him until he popped.

Gasping as Hild materialized in his office, Gendo's chair scooted away from the demonic enchantress. "W-what are you doing in my office! How did you get in here? And that boy is nothing but a pest, a petulant child that will do as he's told," and Gendo was going to force the brat to come back to the fold. His eyes drawn like Keitaro's hand to Naru's bust to what Hild was flashing him, Gendo nearly burst a blood vessel.

Propping herself up on Gendo's desk, flashing him a slight of her unblemished thigh through the slit of her dress, Hild chuckled. "I came in through the front door, Gendo-chan. I came to insure you signed that paper, and gave me what you foolishly gave away," she tapped on the paper that was waiting for Gendo's name. Tracing her fingers along the paper, "Won't you be a dear and make this painless for both of us?"

Snorting, Gendo was buying what Hild was selling and walking down the road to self-destruction. "I'm not giving some whore one of my pilots. You can't seduce me into handing him over to you. I have needs for him to tend to, and you with your huge tits and wonderful calves will have to go without!" The idiot truly thought Hild was trying to entice him into giving Shinji up.

Her eyes light up a glorious red as her face betrayed none of the mirth she felt. "I was hoping you'd be foolish enough to say that," she cooed a she hopped off the desk. In one deft motion, she lifted her leg high into the air, inadvertly flashing Gendo her silky black undergarments, and dropped it through the mighty desk and splintering it. Walking over the rubble, she casually lifted Gendo out of his chair with one hand and held him off the ground. "Isn't a face to face much better when up close and personal?" she mock kissed him.

With Hild's showing of who had the upper hand, Gendo felt the familiar warmth cascading down his leg. _I need to stop drinking so much when unsuspecting beautiful women decide to destroy my office. _He'd have to have more pants hidden in his office to. "W-where did I need to sign again?" he choked out as he fumbled against Hild's grip. The more animal impulses in his mind said to cop a feel in case she was about to kill him, since he might as well die happy.

"Who said men can't be taught," Hild patted Gendo's cheek lightly before dropping him in the puddle he made. "Sorry for the ghastly display, but I want to be home soon to great my son's soon to be mother in law," Hild handed Gendo a flaming pen. "And just think, you don't have to sign in blood," it would have been fun to extract it though. But the man wasn't worth her effort. With the paper signed, Hild left without a word.

X- Gendo bashing never gets old –X

Dropping his satchel at the door, Shinji couldn't suppress the joy that came from saying, "Mom, I'm home!" It had started out so strangely between them, but over the time they spent together, Shinji couldn't help but lose himself in Hild's maternal side. Spotting a rather elaborate pair of sandals, "Do we have company?"

"We're in the living room Shin-chan," Hild called out. She was just dying to see how her boy reacted to seeing the dreaded 'mother in law'. Having received one of Misaki's hugs upon meeting her, Hild was prepared to administer a little demonic healing magic just in case. Spotting that lovably mop of shaggy brown hair, "Shin-chan, say hello to Sasami's mother, Misaki?" she gestured to the light blue kimono clad Misaki sitting in an easy chair.

His heart rate spiked the instant Hild's words registered in his head. Mother in-law was a word synonymous with marriage and all the judgment that came from 'stealing our little girl'. Not wanting to offend the ravishing looking woman, Shinji couldn't fathom how old she was, she seemed to be Misato's age if not younger. "Hello, mom…are you sure that's not her sister or…UMPH!"

Shinji had hit Misaki's strike zone perfectly with the unknown well played complement. "What a charming and handsome young lad you are!" she squeezed the air out of Shinji like a balloon. "Of course I'm Sasami's mother, but you're quite the flatter to say I look young enough to be her sister!" Misaki waved Shinji back and forth like a rag doll, her mighty hair swung around as she twirled.

"Now, now Misaki-san, don't go breaking my son before the wedding day alright?" Hild was going to honor that request as it came from Yui and not Gendo. "Shinji is looking a little winded from your affection," though Hild was starting to get a little nervous as Misaki continued to hug the boy for near on a minute. "Misaki-san?"

Setting Shinji back down on unsteady feet, Misaki ruffled Shinji's hair playfully. "You'll suit my Sasami just fine," she lead the boy back to the chair and sat him down right next to her. "So when is the wedding planned?" she asked expectantly of Hild. The leader of the royal guard had taken to Hild quickly after learning of Yui's unfortunate accident, and Hild's handling of one 'bastard king'.

Sucking in huge breaths, Shinji felt his lungs ready to explode. "We-we haven't set a date yet. Up until recently we both were worried the other didn't want to go through it…have to admit I don't think I quite deserve Sasami as a wife." Sasami was a princess of the largest empire in the known universe and he was for the most part just a normal kid.

Walking out of the closet, Sasami dropped her plate of cookies on the ground as she saw her mother almost manhandling her fiancé. "M-m-mother? What are you doing!?" Sasami shrieked.

Tossing Shinji, as her mental state could only afford to shower one creature with her immense motherlove at one time, Hild caught the Shinji rocket. "SASAMI!!!" Misaki wailed at her prematurely aged daughter and rushed to hug the ever loving crap out of her…only to toss her like she did Shinji when Ryo-oki showed up. Once tornado Misaki was hugged out, it was time to eat…and then bath time where Misaki caused duel fainting in Shinji and Sasami by requesting to wash Shinji's back to gain trust between mother and son-in-law.

X- Misaki is a force of nature –X

Author notes

A little smaller for an opener but this was more to wrap up lose ends from last arc and to get this one officially started. Hope ya liked it and continue to support this monster of a story that does have an end in mind…I just hope I live long enough to write to it ^_^

Ja mata

Zentrodie (zentrodie-dot-geo-at-yahoo-dot-com)


	42. Times an illusion writing time doubly so

Standard Disclaimer

Its that time again for more insanity in the 'all anime in a blender' that this story has become. Enjoy

X-X

What We Make of It

Chapter 42 – The Answer to Life the Universe and Everything

Or –

I just made a Hitchhikers joke…dear God

Sitting around the breakfast table at the Morisato shrine, Shinji was getting to know his new sister amid the chaos of eating. "Is it always so lively here?" he asked as he held his rice bowl closer to his mouth. He watched as Skuld chased after Keiichi with a strange looking ball with wires all over it. "And Belldandy-san looks a lot happier since I last saw her, enjoying married life?" the teen quipped at site of Goddess of the Presents face screamed 'I'm about to explode into candy and unicorns.'

Sipping her morning sake, Urd just wrapped her left arm around Shinji's shoulders and pulled her brother in for a light hug. "It tends to be a little on the chaotic side. When the random god or goddess comes to vie for Keiichi or Belldandy's affection it gets stranger," Urd was enjoying the new family member. It was a bridge to connect her to Hild, and Urd did miss her mother despite whatever she said. "As for Bell…" that was a can of worms Urd didn't want to touch with a hundred meter pole.

Deftly plucking the 'Skuld-bomb' out of her younger sister's hand as the duo passed, Belldandy just smiled that mind-shattering smile. "Now-now you two, we have company today so you shouldn't play so hard," she'd have to punish Keiichi later for making a scene. Yes a mid-morning session out on the veranda would be a lovely punishment. Tossing the bomb out a window, it exploded leaving a creator in the lawn, Bell went on as if nothing happened. "Tell us how Hild-san is treating you, Ikari-san?" Bell also enjoyed the fact that the boy was not technically family as well.

Picking at the simple yet delicious meal, Shinji bashfully grinned like an idiot. "She's…she's been really good to me. I feel like I have a real mother again, but she can go a little far with her teasing," making the girls that visit him dress in alluring costumes was different. "And she's been going on about 'concubines' a lot which I'm sure means something other than what I think it does," he hoped at least.

Covering Shinji's face with lukewarm tea, Skuld did a masterful spit-take. "C-C-Concubines! Onee-chan Hild wants him to have…that's just perverted!" Skuld's face was a heavenly mix of disgust and intrigue. This boy was different that the others, one Skuld could see herself liking more and more given the time. Now if she signed up to join this little social club…

Laughing loudly, Urd slammed her bottle down and grabbed a napkin. "That sounds just like Hild," Urd's raucous voice filled the small room. Only her mother could adopt a child and then start gathering a following of women for him. "Be careful little brother, Hild just might have one of the new hires do a trial run on you in your sleep!" Urd teased while hoping she was a light year from the truth.

"Oh my, that sounds like ever so much fun!" Belldandy chirped as she grabbed Keiichi's hand. "It never occurred to me that I could make love to you while you sleep! Kei-chan this opens new doors for us!" Belldandy's honeysweet voice stood in stanch defiance to the concepts she was spewing. Her eyes went hazy as a crimson tint came to her cheeks as plans to steal Keiichi's sole respite flooded her brain.

The atmosphere in the room plummeted into a nice sub-zero feel. Skuld dropped her chopsticks to the ground and her jaw followed quickly after. Urd pinched the space between her eyes, as Keiichi's head sunk in defeat. Shinji just sat bewildered at hearing Belldandy mention anything related to sex, it was mind boggling. And said brain damaging Goddess was giggling to herself and murmuring just to add to the creepy factor.

Abruptly standing up, Shinji rubbed his cheek as the urge to run screaming into the hills from Belldandy took a firm hold in his mind. "Well I better get moving, or I'll be late for school. Urd, I'll pass on what you said to Mama-Hild, Skuld have a good day, and um…Keiichi-san…" Shinji didn't know what to say. While being married to the girl of your dreams seemed wonderful, the fact said girl appeared to gain sustenance from the act of lovemaking was frightening.

Joining Shinji in the act of escaping, Keiichi got to his feet as well and made to follow the departing boy. "I'll show you the way out, Shinji-kun," Keiichi's voice was even haggard and tired. He never questioned his decision to marry Bell, he loved her more than life itself. She just was a different person after they started sharing interpersonal space. 'It's an extension of our love, and I want you to know how deeply I love you.' Keiichi wondered if Bell's love was a fluid, how much would drown him.

Hearing Skuld's reaction finally take physical form, as they left the room, Shinji thought he heard a guttural scream. "And here I thought Goddess's were supposed to be different than normal people," Shinji chuckled a little. Putting his shoes on, he caught sight of Keiichi grinning. "You really love her don't you? I'm not going to be…my being part of your family isn't going to cause problems is it?" Shinji asked. He hadn't expected that after Hild's adoption he'd get an extended family through Urd.

"Yeah I do," Keiichi replied tiredly, "Bell can just be little to enthusiastic in her attempts to make others happy." He ruffled Shinji's hair as the boy put his satchel on. Keiichi saw a lot of his old self in this new addition to their family. The change in Hild was something unexpected, but Keiichi wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth. "As for you, Bell and I were always looking for some loophole to get Urd and her mother closer. You'll fit in perfectly fine with us, so welcome to the clan," he shook Shinji's hand.

"All I was saying was now that he's Hild-san's child he can make use of demonic rights. This means he can make love to non-blood related family members. So you two should surprise him with some skinship! It would be wonderful for all of you!" Belldandy's voice wafted through the shrine to Keiichi and Shinji's ears. "If you're worried about not being able to, Keiichi and I can watch and offer suggestions to all of you!" by the inflection in her voice, Belldandy was really liking that idea of one big family love-off.

Seeing the boy in question looking back questioningly, Keiichi body language was one of total fright. "Run, Shinji, run as fast as your legs can carry you and don't look back!" Keiichi moved to block the entrance of the door in the case Bell wanted to do her insane little plan sooner rather than later. "I'll stall her as long as I can, just get out of here now!" he heard Shinji's feet hitting the ground as the boy ran at a frantic pace.

X- Belldandy means well she's just insane with goodness –X

"Oh wow that's such a cool idea Katsuragi-san! I didn't know we had a costume day today! I would have worn my Hello Kitty costume!" Maya gushed as she entered the meeting room for the morning status briefing. "Those red horns are so cute! Did you have Asuka help you with them?" Maya, the genius yet childlike, asked while taking her seat next to Misato.

Tugging on the form fitting 'hot devil' costume she had on, Misato was cold on many levels. It wasn't just the fact she was in glorified swimsuit, but her life had just dropped out of her. "Yeah, Maya, its costume day at Nerv today," and she had come as the woman that lost her mock family. Following the latest entry to the room, Misato saw Makoto nearly fainting from blood loss as he saw her. "This day just keeps getting better, doesn't it," she gripped.

"At least you're not strapped to a chair with a goalie mask over your face," Ritsuko moaned. Her time at the Tokyo-3 preschool had shown Ritsuko new levels of pain and suffering at the hands of insane toddlers. "Is it really necessary to handcuff me while in the jacket?" she asked as she pulled on the restraints.

Taking her seat at the head of the table, Washu sat in Gendo's chair with a certain degree of relish. "It's because you have one point left on your scientist badge my dear padawan," Washu mocked her pupil. "Anyway, as new head of Nerv's tech branch, I called this meeting of all the senior staff to address a few issues people have had lately," namely the lost time and the fact that most of the angels were being killed by extra plainer entities.

Shigeru took the first opportunity to speak after the odd child-thing sat down. "Do you know anything about those strange things hovering in orbit that killed the last angel? Speaking of the angels, is Nerv even needed at this point? Our two pilots haven't sortie to fight in ages?" he looked around and saw most of the staff nodding in agreement.

Crossing her legs, Attim just huffed at what she was hearing. "So you'd rather we put children in the life of fire to keep your job? Is that what I'm hearing?" as Shinji's personal bodyguard Attim wanted to take every opportunity to keep him out of the line of fire. "As for your 'spaceship' I don't think you have to worry about them, unless you call her old," Attim made that mistake and her rib was still on the mend. After Shinji went to bed the night before, Attim made the mistake of confronting Misaki. One slip of the tongue later she had her mouth pried open until she read from Sasami's apology card. Misaki's acceptance hug almost killed her.

"Oh, didn't see you there fun-bags," Washu gabbed at Attim. "As for your question uh…random male number 2, yes the ship did kill the 'angel' as you put it. And yes we do still have a purpose," and it was to give Washu all the resources she could ever swindle and to play with. "Due to certain legal reasons, the Commander will not be present on base for awhile as well…apparently due to the Third Child's adoption some dubious actions of the Commander have come to light," Washu's feral smile frightened those that were close enough to see the tiny green fire in her eyes.

Presently surrounded by the head's of the Sakuraba clan, Flameheart empire, Misaki, Hild, and a host of other family's he promised Shinji too, Gendo very much wanted to swallow his tongue. Each family was demanding an explanation to why Misaki had scheduled a wedding date for her child and the boy they were promised. With Shinji's worth exploding due to the pageant and repressed memories of saving femalekind, each family wanted him NOW. Threatening to pull back finances unless Gendo explained, Hild was present to offer the families another alternative…their daughters as concubines.

"Washu-chan, if I could make a request?" Ritsuko pleaded to her teacher. The others were blowing this near subjugation far out of hand. Misato and Ritsuko remembered most of the events related to the virus, because they knew of it before it got into the water system. "I'd like to take my place back at your side to redeem myself for my failures…I'd even help get Aisha up and running!" Ritsuko aimed at Washu's weak point aka Sasami.

Grabbing the handles of Ritsuko's wheelchair, Misato started rolling the woman out of the room. "Excuse me everybody, I have some trash to take out before it starts making a bigger stink," Misato wasn't quick to forgive Ritsuko for all the problems she caused. "Attim, if you'd like to help me, I might need some assistance throwing it in the burnable garbage shoot," Misato cooed her words into Ritsuko's ears lovingly.

Picking the deranged doctor out of the chair, Attim hefted the woman over her shoulder. "With pleasure, Katsuragi-kun," Attim wanted to get a little vengeance for the pain Ritsuko put Shinji through. "Excuse us, but the devil here and I have some business. Little girl, feel free to keep pretending to be sane in front of these people who don't know you," Attim waved as she smacked Ritsuko's rump to keep the doctor from squirming.

Attim and Washu had an odd friendship. Washu gave Attim back the lifespan she thought she'd never have, but at the same time Washu was a very evil little minx. The crab fetishist enjoyed toying with the buxom woman, but hated how Attim was so close to Sasami's fiancé. If Attim ever tried to garner Shinji's love, he'd be hers in moments, and Washu needed that to change.

"DEAR GOD WHY WON'T ANY OF YOU HELP ME!" Ritsuko screamed as she felt the dubious intentions that both Misato and Attim had. "They're going to do things to me! Unkind and evil things! Makoto you help me and I'll give you some of Misato's old bras or something!?" Ritsuko didn't care what deals she had to make, she wanted to live. "Hell I'll even throw in some of mine! Maya? I'll get you that Hello Kitty live action movie signed poster!"

"PLEAAAAASE!!" the doctor screamed as she was taken from the room.

After the echo died down, Washu corrected her papers and cleared her throat. "Well, now that that has been taken care of. Anymore questions?" Washu asked the group of people that just sat there as Ritsuko was taken kicking and screaming from the room. She liked these people, she liked them a lot! It was going to be fun playing in this base.

X- Ritsuko is on a lot of shit lists right now –X

"Well thank you Suzuhara-san for you're detailed explanation on the workings of Nerv's LCL creation pumps," Chiyo yawned as Touji's boring father finally finished his spiel. Having nearly fallen asleep three times, jabbing herself with a pen each time to stay awake. Chiyo hoped the next boy's father would be more entertaining. As the students idly clapped as Touji's father Kenta sat by his son. "Next up we have…Aida Mizuchi," Chiyo gestured to the man in the back of the room on a phone.

Flipping his phone closed, Kensuke's father Mizuchi adjusted the collar of his finely tailored white Italian sports coat and walked to the front of the room. "For starters, call me Donny, everybody does if they like staying on my good side," his rich and thick voice filled the room with its casualness. Standing a decent five-ten, his hair slicked back, the man appeared to ooze confidence. "And you, little teacher, are quite the looker. Makes me wish I had a teacher like you back when I went here," the man winked playfully at the teenage teacher.

Jabbing Kensuke in the ribs, Touji whispered harshly, "Dude you're dad is going to totally going to get us all screwed!" Nobody screwed with Chiyo if they wanted to continue a normal and healthy school life. Touji only ran into Kensuke's father on a few occasions, but he had thought Mizuchi's attitude was a joke, not a real on. "Did you tell him what she does to troublemakers?" Touji winced at the thought.

"SUZUHARA! You owe me five essays on the marriages from the classic author Jane Austin, due at the end of the week!" Chiyo yelled interrupting 'Donny's' introduction. It was a 'you scratch my back I'll scratch yours' world, and Chiyo wasn't going to let somebody get off light for taking education with ease. "Miz-Donny, I apologize, continue," she had been flattered at the man's words.

Bowing lightly to the woman, she'd have made a mint in certain circles if he could loosen that moral screw in her head. Donny was all about making more money and more honor for his boys and the family. "Well unlike Suzuhara-kun there, I don't have a traditional job," he was a carrier criminal and a very good one. "So I might not sound as standard as he did," and he was being nice, Mizuchi wanted to say boring but he'd not offend the man in front of school children.

Typing into her laptop, Asuka just snorted as she sent her vassal an instant message. 'I think that meat sack just insulted the other boy's father. Humans are such funny things.' But Asuka had to hold her tongue, and her napalm, or when Naga showed up things would be so much worse. Sending another message, 'What is Hild going to do?'

"I'm in a family owned business that deals in all manners of endeavors. We service a great deal of the cities needs," Mizuchi continued. His boys practically owned the Red-Light district and all its sinful glory. "We sponsor sporting events, and cater to all of those who attend them," the betting circles were a mint for those not appalled by staking the odds. Paying off a player to throw the game was a wonderful way to make oodles of cash. Which was something Mizuchi wanted to see to with this little business of the Ikari boy's betting pool.

'Mama-Hild said she wants to keep it a secret, but she won't be here today,' Shinji replied to Asuka's text. After hearing from Touji's father, and three other students 'stay at home mothers' Shinji was hoping Hild didn't rock the boat to much. He hoped she'd play the whole 'hell' business off as a business and not the place sinners were damned to spend eternity. 'Are you going to Nerv today, I have tests after class,' Shinji never knew when to expect the demonic princess would follow or not.

Clearing her throat, Chiyo saw a lot of computer activity going on when the little ingrates should be paying attention. "Class, it's time for a little Q&A with Donny-san here. Does anybody have a question for him?" she let her evil eye draw all of them in with threats of extra homework.

Hacking her way into the conversation between the damn red-headed man stealer, and the boy that helped heal her heart and mind, Rei was going to have fun with this. 'I don't believe she has the time to spend at Nerv, not with her mother arriving tonight,' Rei introduced herself to the chat session. Moments later, Rei's smile expanded as Asuka screamed out in frustration and left the chat session in fear. 'Since she is not going, might I walk with you, Shinji?'

Laughing out loud as the girl, an odd girl with twin pigtails of mighty length, Mizuchi couldn't help himself. That girl, Usagi, and her friends could be headliners in his highest paying bar if only given proper motivation. "No, I've never seen the president of baseball, I don't think one exists little lady. Oh, is that the mighty savior of Tokyo-3 Shinji Ikari there?" Donny asked knowing full well it was. Shinji was the hottest thing since that darling woman he sold his soul to for power.

Hild loved gangsters, so easy to please and screw over.

If he could just get a little assistance from Shinji, Mizuchi had unlimited earning potential. But for now was the bet. "Mind if I ask you a question, me and my boys owe you a great deal of charity my boy. So what might the great hero of Tokyo-3 want?" Mizuchi would provide it. Men, women, money, drugs, or even expensive video game systems were all at his disposal and worth the price to get Shinji's aide.

After saying yes to Rei's request, Shinji hastily shut his laptop after being singled out as the only student to ever be asked a question so far. "Um, nothing really sir. I have just about everything I could want," he had friends, family, and potential girlfriends! Life really had taken a nice turn for him. "I guess if I had to think of something, better treatment for Touji's sister," Mari needed to have the best care.

Mizuchi liked this boy, but the selfless were the hardest to buy. No matter, everybody had a price and Mizuchi had all the options. "Well just let me say two things. If you ever need money, brown haired girls that think they're to manly but are excellent cooks could earn you a mint! And if you ever find yourself wanting a part-time job I have some 'delivery' services where you could earn a lot of scratch," Mizuchi thanked the class and headed back to the rear of the classroom. At current Makoto Kino was the highest earning woman on the charts, her chances were abysmal. And Mizuchi had been propositioned for a drugged but physically capable Ikari Shinji so many times and for such outlandish amounts of money that if he could get Shinji to become a gigolo the boy would be swimming in money like Scrooge McDuck.

Hoping she didn't make the right assumption about what the strange man said, Chiyo pretended she didn't hear that. No way had this man just propositioned one of her students to be a man-whore, let alone telling a pilot that a girl could be used for money. That was ridiculous, she was just having another bender on the alcohol she was drinking. Wait she didn't have any booze…then it was a fever dream and she was seeing things. _That's right, I'm just crazy, crazy-crazy Chiyo hearing silly and impossible things. _Standing before her students again, hoping the crazy left her head, "For the last parent of the day we have Kurumi Mizuno, mother of Ami Mizuno."

Now Kurumi wasn't in denial as Chiyo was, and she didn't like what she had heard. The cute boy was just darling and Kurumi could hope her daughter was a closet lesbian with those other girls she hung out with. If Ami could snatch that boy, Kurumi would be a very attentive mother-in-law. "Well let me start of by saying that blue haired intelligent women might be more beneficial than brown haired cooks," Kurumi's eyes never left the bashful pilots.

Ami about died not knowing if her mother was talking about herself or her. Shinji very much the same, didn't know who exactly Kurumi was talking about because he knew many smart blue haired women. As for Mizuchi's comment…Makoto was a darling woman but he didn't know her that well to make such assumptions of companionship.

"Now as a doctor at Tokyo-3 general hospital, I've seen many of you as patience in the past. But I'd like to give a demonstration of how a physical is done, can I have a volunteer?" Kurumi asked knowing she wasn't going to pick any of those over anxious little boy's hands. She could see their intentions without seeing below their waists, so many men were the same. "Oh Shinji-kun, as one of my repeat offenders you'd be perfect since we've done this so many times before," Shinji had become a pet of hers and the only boy to turn down a sponge bath from the only nurse to get hit on by 95% of the male tenants of the hospital.

Sheepishly Shinji headed up to the front of the class, baleful stares following his every movement. Mizuchi asked Kensuke what Kurumi's odds were and opted to let the woman manhandle the boy, she was still a super earner too. As Kurumi went to work, blood was lost, boys passed out, women turned green with envy, and Shinji thought about what to eat for supper.

X- A geek, a mobster, and a bubbly yet lonely doctor, odd start –X

"Feels like ages since I was last in this," Shinji mentioned as he sat in the entry plug. With so many other events happening, he had the slight impression he'd been slacking with the whole 'pilot' business. "And weren't you going to greet your mother when she arrived, Asuka?" he asked watching the nervous ticking of the demonic princess.

She couldn't admit fear! She couldn't admit weakness! And she sure as hell wasn't going to say she was embarrassed of her mother! "Unlike what that blue haired social reject says, I am a pilot of this tin can. I have that male's soul as proof of that!" Asuka raged as she flashed the bridge and Shinji Kaji's soul. Asuka had no idea when Naga would show up, but she was procrastinating as much as possible. "Now what are those two doing here?" she pointed at Sasami and another woman with the same shade of hair and wearing an equally outrageous kimono.

Her head full of confusion, and embarrassment from the Halloween costume, Misato couldn't maintain eye contact with Shinji. "Misaki is Sasami's mother, and since Sasami is technically Shinji's fiancé that makes her family and able to watch the tests," she bemoaned. Like Shinji, Misato made a tactical error and commented that Misaki looked awfully young to be a mother. She would think carefully before administering a bear hug after what Misaki did to her.

"Some people do get along with their parents," Rei quipped hoping to add to Asuka's anger. Having witnessed Misato's head nearly popping like an over squeezed toothpaste tube, she had hopes of getting Asuka on Misaki's bad side. "And looking at her, doesn't that make you wonder what Sasami will end up as…might be enough to surpass even you," Rei had talked to her friend about forgiveness and reparations from the unpleasantness. Sharing was on the offering table as Sasami did feel horrible.

Knowing partially how destructive Misaki could be, Shinji attempted to defuse Asuka before Unit-02 was crushed. "Now-now, Asuka has a very unique and beautiful quality about her that nobody could match," his brain screamed again and again 'cater to her ego! CATER TO IT OR DIE!" But try as he might, even Misaki and Sasami's alien features couldn't keep him from staring at Misato. The way she looked at him hurt, he had to talk to her.

Huffing fire and vaporizing some of the LCL into a fine gelatin, Asuka enjoyed the compliment but was pride bound to attack. "Wondergirl you must be blind if you think either of them will match my beauty! Hell my mother is far more attractive than that old hag!" Asuka laughed at the notion that anybody would surpass her beauty. As her words echoed in the bay, she could feel a chill working its way into the LCL. "Hey crab lady, can you crank up the heat in here…he where did she go?"

Washu, who had taken over Ritsuko's place due to the incarceration, had made a tactical retreat. The universe wasn't prepared for a heavily insulted Misaki Jurai. Leaving and taking as many of the bridge staff as possible, Washu hoped to limit the loss of life to just the foolish princess.

As the fate of one of the two demon's currently pledging themselves to him was in the balance, Shinji dipped into the courage he garnered as he solid snaked through the city. "Misato-san, h-how are you doing? That's an interesting wardrobe selection," he laughed nervously as he wasn't that stupid. He knew Misato was horrible with cooking and cleaning, he was just glad she didn't show up to work in paper bags.

Idly hearing Rei comment that Asuka was mistaken and Misaki might be far more beautiful, Misato turned her haggard eyes on Shinji's console. "I've been alright Shinji-kun. Apartment is a little lonely now that Sasami, Asuka, Kos-Mos, and…and you are gone. Pen-Pen is afraid of the food I cook for him now because it tried to bite him," Misato wasn't joking but she laughed regardless. "H-how are things with you and Hild?" she hoped horrible, but the look on his face when she viewed the section-2 report was all smiles.

"Sasami-chan, I know it might be a violation of my duties as a parent to ask this, but could you teleport that little girl here so mommy can have a chat with her?" Misaki's face was an interesting mix of rage and calm. Her royal robes were being shed layer after layer leaving her in a simple power blue tunic, just in case blood was spilt. Having made peace with the fact her daughter merged with one of the Goddess of the universe, Misaki was just happy Sasami survived the ordeal.

Tiptoeing towards the door, Sasami was torn between fleeing for her life and her ordained powers of preserving life. Tsunami was even afraid of the face Misaki was showing, but she had to preserve all life. "Um…Mommy wouldn't you rather play with Ryo-Oki?" bribe that woman with the cabbat! Misaki never turned down the chance to pet something cute! _If I threw Shinji at her it might work too…maybe better than Ryo-Oki but I doubt he'd survive. _Sasami weighed the options.

Filling Sasami with more dread than thought possible, Misaki clenched her fingers, "No time for that cutie now, Mommy needs to punish a naughty naughty girl." Nobody called her a 'breast-less, old hag, only fit for being a nurse maid or cook!' And if she wasn't mistake the words were being provoked from that girl that was Sasami's friend. Only seeing Rei in passing as the plugs were loaded, Misaki couldn't help but notice the familiar hair color and eyes almost Sasami's hue.

"Things have been going well for us, Mama-Hild has been really great to me," Shinji couldn't lie and his grin betrayed his attempt to downplay it. "But I can't help but feel that…that I've abandoned you," he said honestly. "You took me in first, showed me that you cared, but when the chance to have an honest to…well not Kami-sama since Mama-Hild is a demon, mother I-I'm sorry," his head sunk low as shame over whelmed him.

Her fingers tracing the screen, Misato's face softened for the first time in weeks. "Don't feel bad about that Shinji-kun. I'm hardly mother of the year, you took care of me more than I took care of you," and she wanted him happy. Hild could give him more closure for wounds that Misato could see hadn't healed well. No Misato didn't love him like a mother loved her son, she loved him like a man.

Nodding despite himself, Shinji had to accept the fact that Misato wasn't really a 'positive role model', but she had heart and that counted in his book. Thinking of something he could say, something he could do to show he still cared for Misato, it hit him! "You could come to Mama-Hild's if you wanted, Misato-san!" he blurted out not thinking fully of the context he was saying.

Her face going beat red, Misato mistook what Shinji was offering and gasped. "SHINJI-KUN! I'm shocked you'd ask me to be a concubine! I mean…I never thought you'd become a degenerate or pervert! Asking a woman to move in so you could have your…have your nefarious ways with her is so unlike you!"

His face going white, his jaw dropped as he heard Misato's words dancing around in his head like Maya on a sugar high. "I-I-I didn't mean like that Misato-san! Honest! I just mean she has such a big mansion and I could do your clothing and cooking…you're like family and I don't feel right about how things are between us! It's not fair," he gushed. Ending with a weak yet powerful, "And I miss you."

Her eyes light up and her stomach burst into a wonderfully warm flame as Shinji took the bait hook like and sinker! Teasing him was always fun, something she missed almost as much as his cooking. "OH so THAT'S what you meant," she'd not admit she was just screwing with him. "I guess if you clear that with your mom, and promise not to make me due dirty things against my will," not like he could, "I'll accept."

"Just look at those split ends and those crows feet and honestly tell me that she isn't an old hag!" Asuka continued to provoke her own demise as she pointed at Misaki's image. "Compared to her…he how did I get out here?" Asuka was confused as she felt a tingling and she was suddenly outside her entry plug and standing before the very irate woman she had been mocking. Seeing such rage wasn't new to Asuka, but feeling like a small bug before a mighty beast did, "I-uh…should warn you that I'm far more powerful than you mortal…and Ayanami was kinda responsible for half of what I said."

"Sasami," Misaki intoned coldly and pointed at Unit-00. She had suspected that this creature was more driven by emotions rather than wit, so something had to be provoking her. She'd have to punish both children for such rude behavior.

Looking up at the single eye of Unit-00, Sasami frowned deeply. "Sorry Ayanami-chan, but she's my mother and I'm not suicidal enough to go against her right now," her tone laced with sincerity. If Ryo-Oki wouldn't placate Misaki, Sasami doubted even dancing child Ryo-Oki on Shinji's back would have doused the flames. Misaki needed to administer parental justice. Moments later, with Tsunami's help, Ayanami Rei was teleported along side her conspirator.

Standing before Misaki, Rei could feel a horrible aura exuding from the woman. Perhaps she went to far with her little joke, and now the piper had to be paid. "I apologize, pretty young lady, for any offens……NOOOOOOO!" Rei yelped. In one fluid movement she felt her feet going out from underneath her and a weight pressed against her stomach as Misaki held her stomach to her extended knee. "It was a joke?" she tried with one final gambit.

"Jokes are fine, but never treat your elder like this," Misaki had to be firm to be fair. Drawing her hand back she proceeded to spank the ever loving hell out of Rei's plugsuit clad rear. On hearing Asuka's laughter, Misaki's eyes switched from the sniffling but repentant child to the other. "Now for you…and that mouth of yours," grown men would have fainted at the sound of Misaki's voice. Moving faster than Asuka had seen in all her years in hell, Misaki planted her thumbs in both sides of Asuka's mouth and pulled outward hard. "What do you have to say young lady?" she would hold until she heard what she wanted.

She was never punished before! Even her mother had failed to administer physical punishment. Asuka's pride took more of a hit than the pain from Misaki's odd punishment. "I'b sowwby, I'b na do it agai," she slurred out unable to move right. But as Misaki's hold didn't go away, Asuka realized what she had to say and boy did she not want to say it.

Five minutes later.

"You are much pettier than I am, I was jealous," Asuka relented and the moment the words left her lips she felt Rei's body crushed next to hers. This ape of a woman was hugging them! First her pride now she was being humiliated! If her vassal saw this she'd never live it down!

But Shinji was busy talking to Misato about how the fire department had to come and put out the fire from Misato's cooking. Followed by the center for disease control to burn her clothing.

X-X

Authors notes

Well this was a shorter chap, but it was a intro to the next ark so those tend to be lacking in length. Hope ya liked it and continue to read this monumentally long collection of short stories.

Ja Mata!

Zentrodie – zentrodie-dot-geo-at-yahoo-dot-com


	43. Its a job

Standard Disclaimer

Round and round the cycle of my stories goes where it stops…if you're paying attention you already know. More of the parent arc and I hope ya enjoy it.

X-X

What We Make of It

Chapter 43 – Today's hell is for…

- or –

It's a job with perks

System fully recovered, damaged sectors repaired, all systems nominal. That and a bevy of other system readouts passed through the computerized likeness of a brain that was housed in the impenetrable steel case that was Kos-Mos's skull. Her lovely red eyes finally shown through her fluttering eyelids as her system finished its recovery cycle. "Shinji-sama, good morning," she spoke as she stepped out of her master's closet.

Yawning as his sleep was kindly broken by his personal robotic servant, Shinji sat up in his bed and scratched the back of his head. "Kos-Mos! You're finally awake again. I was getting a little worried, but Washu-chan insured me you would be fine," he said with much relief. He had been reading, not fully understanding them mind you, the readouts from Kos-Mos's station nightly hoping for her to awaken. "Mama-Hild even asked if I wanted one of her minions to heal you," but Shinji sagely thought demonic magic and Kos-Mos wouldn't have mixed well.

Pulling Sumomo and Kotoko out of the bays in her back, they had recovered as well, Kos-Mos put the dynamic duo of confusion on the floor. Kneeling before Shinji, her long blue tresses obscuring her face, Kos-Mos knew shame. Prostrated before her bonded human she stated flatly, "Shinji-sama, I humbly request punishment for my actions. If you wish me deactivated I would accept such." She had nearly destroyed the city, lost her organic components to lust, and could have killed him.

It was to early in the morning for Shinji to fully understand just what the heck was happening. "Kos-Mos, you weren't in control of yourself, it's not your fault," he quipped as he helped the android stand back up. Feeling weight pressed against each leg, Shinji recognized the sensation of his tiny computerized friends climbing up to his shoulders. "I forgave everybody involved with the incident, and that includes you," he said softly as he pushed Kos-Mos's hair off her shoulder.

Dancing on Shinji's shoulder, Sumomo just assumed Shinji's forgiveness of Kos-Mos extended itself to her. Having not been infected, Sumomo did cripple Shinji's capabilities by getting short circuited at the start. "Hurray! Hurray! Forgiveness! Forgiveness!" she sang as she pulled the tiny tambourine out of hammer space and played a jaunty tune. Kotoko just hung her head in shame at her counterpart's insanity.

Clutching at Shinji's hand on her shoulder, Kos-Mos's logic circuit was nearly breaking at the words. Her study of humanity had been fairly unflattering. The majority of the world would not have forgiven near death experiences so quickly, and yet her master just brushed it off as if it was her stating she didn't wash his socks. "Shinji-sama…I would have seriously hurt you had I found you…I would have robbed you of your innocence. How can you forgive so quickly?" not that she was against forgiveness, she just wanted to know why.

"Because Shin-baby isn't like normal meat-sacks is all," Morrigan cooed from her position in the door. She'd watched the tin doll beg for forgiveness only to have it handed to her like a cheep bobble. Shinji really was cut from a different cloth than the rest of humanity, as the part of him in her soul chorused. "But while he says he accepts it, I don't. What type of protector nearly causes the rapture while half of her soul is still free?" Morrigan sauntered over to the scowling android.

Shocking both demoness and quasi-human, Shinji dove at Morrigan and wrapped his arms around her waist. "Morrigan-san! Mama-Hild said you would be gone for a long time!" Shinji gushed as he hugged his savior. Morrigan's actions during the virus incident had not been lost on Shinji. She saved his life countless times, was hurt protecting him, and Shinji wasn't about to let that go unrewarded.

Patting Shinji's head lovingly, Morrigan's anger dissipated like a man's confidence before Asuka's mocking. "Well I got out of my training a lot faster than the instructors thought possible. You see I have a job interview today that I just can't miss," Morrigan's voice twittered. The body next to hers was so warm, so inviting that she forgot she was supposed to me making life hell for Kos-Mos. Her interview with Hild was a formality, but Hell was anything but lenient with the need for proper forms. "Speaking of time, I think your mother is expecting you at the table for breakfast, so get a move on," she said as she reluctantly disengaged from the boy and playfully swatted his rump to get him moving.

As the door shut, and Shinji absent from the room, Kos-Mos stomped her foot defiantly. "I register the fact you saved his life, but I will not forgive you for the damage you caused him before," Kos-Mos's internal computer filed Morrigan under 'perma-bitch'. The only thing staying her hand from turning into painful death dealers was Shinji's affection for the bat-winged harpy. "You owe him your life as well, so do not look so high and mighty. I have broken you before," Kos-Mos walked back to her closet.

Plopping down on Shinji's bed, arguably the most highly contested real-estate in Japan, Morrigan grabbed the fabric with her elegant fingers. "I owe him more than that you giant windup toy, but you might find me stronger than I was back then," Morrigan's head wings flapped playfully. During her training, Morrigan found her powers hand intensified greatly. Her time spent with Shinji had changed her more than she thought, and the closer she stayed to him the more their souls bonded. "But don't worry that little head of yours, I'd hate for you to start smoking from over clocking. Just like you, his safety is now my concern," she fell back onto the bed and moaned suggestively.

Her eyes shifting to blue, Kos-Mos smiled awkwardly at the reformed succubus. "I see that you truly are a different creature from back then. But what type of job would you be seeking?" she asked while syncing up with Kotoko. Watching her master eating with the creature of impossible power, Kos-Mos could only wonder. "What would you need of money?" she added as Sumomo fell into Shinji's soup and splashed broth everywhere.

"Hild is taking interviews for 'personal' servants to her son, and she is making me apply as a formality," Morrigan traced her lips with her finger. She wasn't going to idly sit by and let some insipid girl come in hoping for some stud only to hurt Shinji in the process. "And judging by the mountain of paperwork I saw on her desk this morning…I'm not the only one," Morrigan was going to enjoy helping Hild evaluate the prospects.

X- Hell is paperwork if you didn't know – X

Standing before her assembled class, spying on the parents that were slated for the day's little show, Chiyo was having serious doubts about the plan. Didn't any of her students have normal parents, or were they all spawned from insanity like Cthulhu's little helpers. "Settle down everybody, its time to get the day started, and you know how I hate being delayed," she pulled nail out of her top desk drawer and flashed it to the crowd…it didn't have the affect she wanted. Some days it really sucked being a teacher.

"So you're bringing those little things to school again?" Touji asked as he pointed at the frowning Kotoko. "Won't Chiyo-sensei object to you having toys on your desk?" he quipped as he moved to poke Kotoko's bells. "It's your funeral if she gets angry," and Touji wasn't going to help him.

Proving that even though she was tiny, Kotoko had fangs, the tiny computer chomped down hard on the jock's finger. It was a big finger and she had a tiny mouth, but Kotoko did not allow anybody to call her a toy. After the jock pulled back his throbbing digit, "I cannot speak for my counterpart, but personally I am not a toy Suzuhara. I am a state of the art persocom, with full wi-fi accessibility, fully programmed to defend and observe Ikari-sama in his daily actions," her statement would have held more weight had Sumomo not dived on her in a show of solidarity.

Laughing at the computer dog pile on his desk, Shinji just shrugged. "Kos-Mos fixed them this morning and she insists I bring them with me, and Nerv agreed to it," Shinji didn't mind really as Sumomo was cute enough to strike joy in even the hardest of men's hearts. "Oh and Kensuke, Mama-Hild said I can't take up your dad's job offer right now," not that Shinji knew he had been propositioned to be a man-whore.

Wondering if he could buy Sumomo off Shinji to dismantle and mass-produce the unit, Kensuke grimaced. "Dad will be upset, but I'm sure he'll try talking to your…mom…about it later," Kensuke, like Touji, had a hard time accepting any motherly thoughts with Hild. The woman was just to sexy to be considered a mother, and they didn't like the MILF term to much.

Beaming the three boys in their respective heads with bits of chalk, Chiyo had just about gotten the classroom under control. "Suzuhara, Aida, and Ikari it is class time and when it is class time you are what?" she bellowed. She hated being so loud all the time, but it was the only way to get the students to respect and listen to her. It took a great deal of effort to maintain the 'rage' required for her little-miss bitch routine, but remembering Sakaki's stealing of her dog helped.

All three boys stood up, bowed, and in unison, "We're sorry Chiyo-sensei! When class is in session we are listening!" After the class erupted into a giggle-fit, Chiyo gave them the evil eye and the laughter died faster than the libido of the last boy to hit on Ayanami Rei.

"That's better," Chiyo rewarded her class with a toothy grin. Pulling out the sheet associated with the first parent, Chiyo sighed heavily. _I thought I made it clear that stay at home mothers were NOT acceptable parents to bring. _But the student in question…Chiyo doubted the girl had a thought in that empty head of hers. "First up we have Ikuko Tsukino, mother of Usagi Tsukino. Ikuko-san if you would?" the teenage teacher gestured to the woman seated next to her daughter.

Standing before her daughter's class, Ikuko really didn't know what to say. "G-good morning everybody, as your teacher said I am Usagi's mother," she pointed at her daughter. Being a stay at home mother, Ikuko had a fairly boring life, and up until just recently had spent most of her time either cleaning the house or watching television. Finding Usagi's journal one day however…Ikuko started living the life of many bored housewives. "Unlike what you've probably heard before, I don't technically have a job," she worked her hands to the bone, but that didn't pay so it wasn't a 'job'.

"Tell them about your cinnamon rolls!" Usagi chirped hoping to help her struggling mother. Giving the options of her mom or dad, Usagi didn't want her boring dad to come to school and threaten all the boys like he was oft to do. "Or tell them about how you get all those great deals at the market?" Usagi was well meaning but a trifle slow at times.

Her frazzled purple hair threatened to go grey at Usagi's ideas. "I doubt your friends want to hear that dear. I'm a housewife so that means most of my day is spent maintaining the cleanliness of our home. Something Usagi goes to great lengths to destroy," Ikuko's eye twitched at the thought of the storm Usagi could bring to a nice clean home. Looking around the room, Ikuko found the boy that the teacher mentioned as Ikari…and the name matched some of Usagi's journal entries.

Now being a bored woman, Ikuko found joy where she could. Usagi foolishly leaving her journal out, and open while she cleaned the girl's room provided some relief. Scanning the contents to make sure her daughter wasn't doing something bad, like drugs or gambling, Ikuko was shocked to read about the new love interest in her daughter's life. What made things even better was Usagi, freakishly enough, had a complicated plan to get the boy to visit for supper one day. And that made thoughts of cougars not just mean cats any more. Ikuko and Kurumi had much in common.

X- Usagi's mom must be near insane from living with all the randomness –X

"Thank you uh…Excel…we have a lot of other applicants so we'll let you know after we've made out decision," Hild said nicely as she closed Excel's file folder. Standing up and opening the door to the hallway, Hild groaned as the line of applicants appeared to be growing and not shortening. Closing the door as the eccentric and wildly insane woman left, Hild fell heavily into her chair. "Ok, maybe I'm making this to sweet a deal, because I believe I've seen three of the same people in line outside and that means dimensional crossing," she moaned.

Setting fire to Excel's application, Morrigan shrugged, "You are offering these women a high paying job to tend to the most desirable man on the planet. What were you expecting?" she was just happy that Hild didn't pull a fast one on her. The contract she signed to be one of Shinji's aids was the standard 'if you break this you die horribly' plans, but the benefits package was outstanding. "Did you want to break for lunch? Maybe practice your little spiel for your day at school tomorrow, 'Mama-Hild'," Morrigan chided.

Snapping her fingers and causing Morrigan's chair to vanish, Hild was losing patience with the sea of eager would-be employees. "The fact we had to lease out an office building to host all these women is a little much," she spun her chair to face the succubus she both hated and adored. Anybody with the guts to mock her was special, and Hild liked special. "We'll see two more and then I'm all for some drinks and teasing Keiichi and my daughter for awhile," and then it was time to go home for some more fun teasing her adopted son.

"Ah the infamous Keiichi Morisato, living proof to be careful what you wish for," Morrigan let out a royal laugh. Even hell found Belldandy's antics amusing, and moderately alarming. Pulling out the next folder as she got to her feet, Hild didn't replace her chair, Morrigan's eyes widened, "Next we have Misato Katsuragi?! Wasn't that the woman that Shinji asked could move in?" Morrigan was tempted to tease Shinji as Misato had done, but thought better of it.

Hitting the buzzer to send in the next victim disguised as an applicant, Hild's predatory smile returned. "Of course she is, and she too is a friend of my daughter. Now I'd normally just let her in, but it's too much fun to tease this one," Hild did enjoy tormenting mortals. Waving to Misato as the woman came in, donned in her red flight jacket, Hild gestured to the chair, "Have a seat Katsuragi-kun, and tell my why you want this position?"

Not having expected the formal invitation to Hild's little meat market, Misato was alarmed at the throng of humanity outside the snug office. "Look, I'm here because some strange girl named Mara dragged me here and said you wanted to see me. Is this about Shinji-kun offering to let me stay with him?" and Misato really missed that kid. "And before you say anything he did NOT ask me to be his concubine," Misato huffed as Morrigan stared hungrily at her.

That shiver of pre-battle bliss worked its way through Hild's body. "Now is that anyway to talk to a boy's mother? I know my son has feelings for you, and you were his guardian for a time, but that is in the past isn't it?" Hild smoothly stated. Pulling a few choice images from Misato's folder, she handed them to the woman that was already hired but didn't know it. "What can you tell me about this picture?" she asked in a neutral tone.

It was a picture of her hugging Shinji in more than just a motherly way. "It's a picture of Shinji and me before that pageant business," oh how her voice was close to losing its edge. Another picture was put in her hand, "And this is me giving him a good luck kiss…that's all…" Misato was tempted now to slap the ever loving snot out of Morrigan as the damn woman snort-laughed at her.

Spinning her chair around, Hild gazed out the window of the fourteenth floor office she was seated in. The view would have been breathtaking to a mortal, but Hild only found it mildly amusing. "I know you care for him in ways that transcend friend status. I also know that if giving the opportunity you'd seek out a relationship with my son. What I want from you is your word that you won't do something scurrilous with him," such things were impossible for humans to do, not on the demonic scale.

"What Hild-sama is so coyly stating is she wants proof you wont' be keeping her son awake at night with your unwanted old-woman advances. Not when he will have much younger and firmer choices," Morrigan struck at Misato's weak point for massive damage. If Misato was a pokemon, a Misa-chu for example, her elemental weakness would be 'age', and Morrigan had all the TM's.

Her nails dug deeply into the armrests of her chair. Misato was not enjoying the game of cat, mouse, and bitch. "Look, I don't know what little scene you have playing in that empty skull of yours, Morrigan, and I don't care. Yes, I'll admit it, I love Shinji. There I said it, happy? I miss living with him, I took him presence for granted, and now I'm suffering for it. But he asked ME yesterday about this, and the fact I'm here means he told you, Hild. So what are you going to do?" Misato seethed. She was not going to be toyed with by some woman that nearly killed Shinji, or the woman that snatched him out of her life.

Without a word, Hild got out of her chair and stood right in front of Misato. Bending over, she stared at the woman, eye to eye. At first Hild appeared appalled and ready to toss Misato out on her still firm rump. "Katsuragi-kun, in light of your shocking admission I have no choice but to…" Hild could see Misato holding her breath. For all the pomp and flair Misato was afraid, but it took courage to say what the woman had said. "Offer you bedroom directly across the hall from Shinji's. He'll need a mature woman like you to show him the ropes, I just hope he doesn't pull a Belldandy on us and get addicted once that barrier is crossed," Hild's face lit up like a Christmas tree on fire. "Now get out of my office," Hild ushered the blushing woman out of her office and back into the waiting hands of Mara.

X- Hild is so much fun to write –X

"Thank you very much Hino-san for that enlightening story about the changes of Shinto in Japan," Chiyo nervously wiped some sweat off her cheek. The perverted old man had been undressing the entire female student body with his eyes the entire time he spoke! He even asked a few girls wanted to try on the robes if they agreed to uphold tradition and not wear undergarments! If his granddaughter hadn't stopped him who knows how far down the depravity stick he would have went. "Does anybody have any parting questions for him?" she shook her head 'no' as she spoke.

Wisely the students were either horrified or stricken dumb by the tiny man's display of how not to live. They enjoyed the stories about the gods and such, but once he got started on how attractive the girls in the class were, it went right down into creepy town faster than a sweet down Usagi's throat.

Picking up the details of the next parent, Chiyo crumpled the paper and dropped it on the ground. "Oh lets just get this over with, up next we have Ritsuko Akagi, guardian of Ayanami Rei. Ayanami, would you roll her up please?" Chiyo asked pointing at the still confined and wheelchair bound doctor.

"And make it snappy, and be a dear and scratch my nose, thing's been itching like mad all day," Ritsuko moaned as Rei kicked the back of the chair and sent her careening towards the front of the room. In the most dignified way possible, Ritsuko screamed like a little girl and plowed into Chiyo. "Damn it Ayanami! I've been punished enough for the day. Now you show proper respect to me or heaven help me I'll spike the damn tank!" the woman that was the epitome of manners and decorum.

Helping Chiyo to fix Ritsuko's wheelchair, Rei, still high on Lady X Butlers, just grinned evilly. "First of the commander is my legal guardian you were just sent in his stead, and second you'll find the tank a different place next time you visit," Rei had rekindled her friendship with Ruri and the first manner of business was making a few changes at Nerv. "Now you behave yourself or I'll have Shinji tell Attim she can 'play' with you," Rei jabbed as she returned to her seat, giving Shinji's shoulder a simple caress as she passed.

"I hate my life at times," Ritsuko moaned as the students stared blankly at her. "Alright let's get this dog and pony show started," she started as she perused the bored looking students. "As some of you might know, well those of you that can read, I work for Nerv as head of the Tech wing. It's a big agency that recently has lost most of its purpose because my mentor's family is coming and they have technology that makes us look like savages sitting in dung huts," Ritsuko was having a very bad day.

Eying the bottle of 'water' that actually was vodka, Chiyo seriously considered taking a mighty swig of it. "Wow, that is an impressive job Akagi-san, you must have to work long hours. Is their anything you can tell us about Nerv?" Chiyo didn't like being talked down to, but this woman seemed crazy so she was going to allow it. Anything to get the mask wearing woman out of the building faster would be best.

"Sure why not, I mean it's just a secret organization after all isn't it?" Ritsuko snidely replied. "I mean its not like my position has been put into doubt, now I get to spend my time babysitting a girl who gets her personality from reading manga, and I'm about to lose my scientist license. Ask away children, what can mama-Ritsuko tell you about Nerv today?" she ranted.

"TELL US ABOUT THE EVANGELIONS" Kensuke screeched at the top of his lungs over powering any other human voice. He was not going to let a golden opportunity like this pass him by.

Squinting her eyes, Ritsuko tried to remember where she saw Kensuke before. "Oh you're that kid that's been sending in all the applications! Sure I'll tell you about the Eva's. Their giant worthless tin-cans! Washu can personally take out the Angels with any number of gadgets of hers. So why she makes dimensional guns, I have to play with angel DNA that crashed into Antarctica causing Second impact, and deal with the fact that each of those giant monstrosities has a human soul trapped in it!"

The class just stared at Ritsuko…and she stared back.

"I didn't just say that did I?" Ritsuko asked as sanity started to annoyingly creep back into her brain. She had just divulged enough of Nerv's secrets to warrant not only being fired, but fired out of a cannon into a brick wall that was set on fire. When the students just nodded their heads she cried out, "Oh damn it!"

X- For her next trick watch as Ritsuko tries to eat her own head –X

"Well its time for the last parent for the day," Chiyo felt like crying tears of joy at that statement. After Ritsuko dropped a few truth bombs and ravaged what were the mental cities of all the students, several nice men in suits wheeled the good doctor away screaming obscenities. Once that little scene was finished, two more fathers told the class how great jobs in the food industry could be and lulled the students back into a boredom coma. "Oh seems that we have the mother but not the daughter for this one. For the last parent of the day we have Misaki Jurai, mother of Sasami Jurai," Chiyo beckoned the heavily layered Misaki to come to the front of the class.

Making her way through the desks, only knocking over three students with her heavy Jurain robes, Misaki beamed joy at the students. "Yes, my dear Sasami-chan has caught a bit of a cold, but insisted I come today to talk to all of you," well that is what Misaki took Sasami's fainting to mean. Washu was teaching her how to alter her age, but Sasami wasn't the quickest to master age manipulation.

Mixed feelings, Chiyo was amazed at how delicate and refined Misaki's kimonos were but they clashed with the ditzy and flighty appearance of the dignitary. "So, Jurai-san tell us about yourself, and what you do for a living?" judging from the sight Chiyo guessed trophy wife.

"Oh call my Misaki you little cutie," Misaki batted at the diminutive teacher and barely restrained herself from hugging the child. Turning back to the students, winking at her daughter's fiancé, Misaki was about to blow their minds again. "I'm the second queen of Jurai and head of the personal body guards to the royal family. Jurai as you might not know is the ruling power in this sector of the galaxy," she flashed her eye melting smile at the students.

Touji was the one to make the mistake of talking first, "Are you a writer or something because that sounds like a crazy awesome movie or something, but what do you really do?" Nobody, save the pilots, believed Misaki's drivel and thought she either mad or making it up. Throwing gas on the fire Touji continued, "And you look to thin to be head of a security force, they have to be strong!"

Picking up the chair that was provided for her, Misaki bent the metal bars of the chair like pipe cleaners. "My what a rude boy you are, I'm glad my son-in-law is nothing like you," she dropped the heap of metal on the ground before the stunned audience. "As for my lineage," she pulled her sleeve up to her mouth, "Funaho-oneesama could you be a dear and fire a shot next to the school?"

Funaho, bored on the tree-ship eagerly obliged her flighty co-wife and fired the typical warning shot next to the school.

After the ringing left the student's ears, Misaki tugged the future king of Jurai to the front of the class. "Now for a persona matter, I wanted to invite all of you to the wedding of my daughter the second royal princess of Jurai to the only son of Yui Ikari," she ended by hugging the mollified boy. "Sasami and you will be so cute together…Ryo-Oki can be the flower girl!" Misaki squealed at the mental image. Seeing a blue haired girl raising her hand, "Yes, you have a question?"

Ami, quick witted as ever, heard a piece of fried gold in Misaki's odd statements. So while the other girls were horrified at the idea of Shinji being married to somebody not them, the genius schemed something worthy of Washu. "Jurai-san, you mentioned you were the second queen, does that mean you're from a polygamous state?" she asked while watching Shinji apparently get eaten by Misaki's robes.

Finger to chin, Misaki nodded. Misaki wasn't a fool, and knew Shinji had quite a few would be suitors, so she had to give this girl an A for effort, Ami earned a few points. "Why yes it is. With our lifespan going into the thousands a single pairing wouldn't be very useful. My husband is seen as odd for only have two wives, but we make up for it with gusto," and nearly breaking the royal scepter.

With that a collective sigh of relief was uttered, followed by the realization that whoever married Shinji would be royalty. Things escalated very quickly.

X- Misaki can just ruin lives –X

Shinji really didn't know what happened, but after Ami's question about Jurai school just exploded into strangeness. The girls all got strange looks on their faces, and once Hikari let them go for the day they all ran out for whatever reason. "Oh well, Misaki-san has that effect on people," Shinji said knowing full well Misaki's eccentricities. Walking down the street towards his new home, Shinji stared absently up at the sky thinking.

And walked smack dab into somebody and knocked the poor thing over. Broken from his revelry about Misaki's wedding plans, Shinji found himself standing over a woman in a deep blue kimono. "Oh, I'm sorry miss, don't know where my head was," he apologized and extended his hand to help the woman up.

Aoi was in a pickle, she was lost in a city she wasn't supposed to be in, got hired for a position her father would skin himself if he knew she had, and to make matters worse she was getting hungry. "It was my fault entirely, my mind was elsewhere," she bowed lightly as the boy helped her to her feet. Her whole life had been flipped around thanks to that horrid man Gendo. She lived her life to be the perfect wife for the man she was arranged to marry. Having met the boy in early childhood at his uncles, Aoi had to admit she was smitten with him so devoted herself wholly to the concept.

But just one day ago she was told the arrangement was off. Gendo had lied to her family to extort money! However that woman Hild offered her an alternative. Become a servant, a personal servant, and nothing need change for her desires in life. The interview had been strange, the woman's secretary had fake bat wings glued to her head! But she got the job, and was trying to find the building, but was horribly lost.

Knowing that kimonos weren't generally issued clothing anymore, Shinji quickly gathered this woman wasn't from the area. "Forgive me if I'm rude, but are you new to the area?" he asked as the beautiful woman dusted herself off. Her form was hidden by the trim kimono, but her face was wondrous yet hinted at naiveté. "Are you looking for some place or somebody?" he asked as the woman's face cutely scrunched up in confusion.

To timid to outright ask for help, Aoi simply nodded, "I got a job today, but I don't know where the building it. You see the interview wasn't held at the establishment." Aoi got a strange vibe from Hild, but the woman appeared to wholeheartedly care about Shinji and that's all that Aoi needed to know. Having heard strange stories from her assistant, Aoi wished she had been able to attend the pageant he hosted…she also wished she could have viewed it but televisions 'were for low-class' her father always said.

Noticing that other pedestrians were starting to watch them, Shinji opted to escort this woman away from prying eyes. "Did you have it written down or something? I don't know a lot of this city, but I could try to help you," in a clutch he could call Misato for a drive.

Handing Shinji the scribbled address, Aoi warmly gazed at the strange boy that was helping her. He seemed familiar, but just couldn't place how and why she might have met him. Living sequester from normal people and being raised to be the perfect wife did detract from social gatherings. "If it isn't to much trouble, I would hate to start by being late," or heaven forbid she get found by one of her father's men. She loved the man, but she was devoted to Shinji.

"This is around where I live, I can take you there if you want," Shinji offered as he thought he made out the writing. It wasn't the best handwriting, but if he squeezed his eyes he thought he could read it well enough. "It's about two blocks south," he pointed as he started leading the woman. "So what type of job is it?" he couldn't help but ask. The woman appeared to be from money so whatever type of job she had must be something elegant.

Her face flushed crimson, but Aoi wouldn't lie to the nice boy helping her. "I'm a little ashamed to admit it, but I was hired to be a personal servant to the man I was to marry," Aoi would never say 'concubine' as Hild had stated. Knowing her duties to the role, Aoi wouldn't flinch from them, why would she? She was going to marry Shinji anyway, so either way it led to the bed. "Things became complicated due to his father, and this might be my only chance to be with him," she said solemnly.

Dropping his satchel at the sheer honesty of the woman, Shinji stooped down to reclaim it. "You really are devoted to him, he's a lucky guy," Shinji said dumbfounded. Whoever the guy was, he was a real lucky bastard. "I hope it works out for you though…a woman such as yourself shouldn't have to suffer," nobody should he thought.

Chatting about lighter subjects as they traversed the short distance, Shinji had to admit he did envy the man this woman was seeking. She was whole heartedly giving herself to him, and even taking a job that others might see as sinful to do it. But when the got to Shinji's house, Aoi looked from the paper to the hovel of a shack she saw standing in the place Shinji saw an immaculate mansion.

Hild was very clever in her defensive spells. Unwanted people would only see a rundown building. Aoi was welcome, but the spell hadn't been modified yet to allow her to see the truth.

"Oh no…this is the building but its…that woman lied to me?" Aoi gushed as tears threatened to break. Here she thought Hild had taken pity on her for the sudden abandonment of the near lifelong pledge of marriage. But now she was standing before a ruined shack that symbolized her life. "W-what do I do now?" she pleaded to the boy gazing confusingly at her.

Walking out the door to meet her son, Hild was pleased he was already getting to know his first official concubine. "Oh Shin-chan, you meet Aoi-chan already? I wasn't expecting her until tomorrow," Hild was going to give Shinji a little surprise in the morning with Aoi standing in his room with nothing but a bow on her head, but that might have been a bit much. "Aoi, this is my son Shinji," she said putting her hands on Shinji's back and giving him a gentle nudge, "take good care of him."

"YOU'RE SHINJI-SAMA!" Aoi yelped in shock. He had grown so much since the time she had last seen him that she hardly could reconcile the idea. Fainting dead away into Shinji's waiting arms, she left the boy more perplexed than anything. He had only seen her once, and it was a very bad time in his life, but a vague half cloudy memory of the adorable child peaked through.

X- And I've finally got Aoi into the story…only took about 40 chapters –X

Author Notes

Remember all those chapters ago I mentioned Aoi? No? Well she did make a cameo back at the Halloween chapter too so it's about time she officially join up. Hope ya enjoyed this chap and continue to support this insane-mixup of anime references

I need to get a life…but its fun not having one

Ja Mata

Zentrodie


	44. A simple job offer

Standard Disclaimer

The pool is finally open and that means happiness can begin. I am something of a pool addict, well when nobody else is in it. So that means updates will be a little later in the day, still same day mind you, cause I hit the pool as often as I can.

X-X

What We Make of It

Chapter – 44 It was all in the plan

or –

Why Hild is the best/worst mother ever

Waking slowly, Shinji yawned as he looked at his clock. Ever since he moved in with his adopted mother, mornings were slightly more hectic than usual, but today was special. Today Hild was going to stand in front of his class and tell them about herself, and the fact she was one of the few creatures brave enough to adopt another persons child. "I just hope things go well," he mumbled before he finally noticed that he wasn't alone.

A raspy breath caressed the back of his neck. Heat permeated his back as two soft yet firm objects pressed firmly against him, and while not the most 'active' of men Shinji had fairly good idea what it was. Rolling away from the body, Shinji majestically fell out of his bed and elegantly bumped his head off the nightstand. "Asuka or Rei I thought I told you not to do that or Mama-Hild is going to…" Shinji's ritualistic reprimand that would have other men hating him more was cut short as he saw who was sleeping in his bed.

Rubbing the sleep out of her eyes as Shinji's failed attempt at speaking woke her, Aoi felt the cold wind of the A/C hit her nude body. Pulling the blankets up and covering her nubile form, "Shinji-sama don't look at me!" It was part of her new job to be a 'bed warmer' and while Aoi was insanely modest she wouldn't go against Hild's wishes less she lose her place at Shinji's side. "I mean M-Master don't look at me…I'm not ready for you to see me like this," she pulled the blanket in closer.

"Aoi-chan what are you doing in my bed? Mama-Hild said you were going to have your own room…I carried you into it after you fainted!" Shinji squeaked out. Still shy about the whole naked woman in his bed that just pressed herself against him thing, the lad quickly turned away from the woman. After Aoi fainted, Shinji and Hild had a long talk about things. Shinji didn't like the idea that Aoi was now in Hild's employ, but was glad that it would make Aoi happy.

Waking from her faint late at night only to find Hild and some green haired woman standing over her, Aoi had been firmly instructed. She was Shinji's concubine, and as such she was to allow him to see her, all of her. Bashful but somehow excited, Aoi let the blanket fall and pool in her waist. "Shinji-sama, this is part of my job now. I'm to make you happy and as per Hild-sama's order I'm to sleep in your bed like this," her voice lost its power as the air again seemed to play with her body.

Spinning back and shouting hotly, "But why are you naked?" Shinji agreed to his mother's demand that he not interfere with Hild's business. But this was a bit much, naked women other men would cut off body parts to see was not what Shinji wanted to wake up to. "W-What if somebody else saw you?" Shinji flubbed and waved his arms frantically.

"I see her and find her bust to be marked smaller than my own and your guardian Attim," Kos-Mos stated blandly as she watched the chaos ensue. "If you are wondering she stole into your bed some two hours after you fell asleep. She was nude when she came in and posed no threat to you so I allowed it," Kos-Mos recalled without a hint of jealousy. Unlike the humans, Kos-Mos accepted the fact that she was going to share her master with others so it didn't bother her to see nude women climb into Shinji's bed.

Sumomo was dancing around singing "breasts" as Kotoko tried to find something to hit her with. It was just a normal morning for Shinji's robotic assistants.

In a move of slight reluctance and hesitation, Aoi slid further off the bed and away from the blanket, allowing Shinji an full and unabashed view. "Hild-sama said this is how things are to be for us…and I was going to marry you so it…it is no different. I am yours in mind and body…all of me," Aoi said haltingly as she extended her arms out to the man she was technically now bound to serve.

His eyes went wide as he saw something far more private than he had ever seen before, Shinji stood up quickly and did what most men do when confronted with something he didn't understand. Shinji ran to find his mother. "Mother!" he shrieked as he ran, and as an interesting choice of wardrobe was clad only in his shorts. "Mother why is Aoi naked in my bed?" he asked as he found his mother sitting at the breakfast table.

Sipping her orange juice, Hild loved juice, the CEO of hell was expecting this little outburst. It was going to take a little time and effort to make Shinji comfortable with being a harem master. "Shin-chan calm down and have a little breakfast. We can talk about your Aoi-chan as you get your morning meal," Hild cooed to her son. Never for a moment did Hild regret her decision to adopt Shinji, he was the second most important person to her next to Urd now.

"How can I be calm knowing she's back there in my bed…I saw her…I mean…I…" Shinji's face flushed as he remembered clearly what Aoi had all but offered him. Seeing Hild's 'stern' face, Shinji stopped his fuming and beset his food with some unease. Hild was a good parent, firm when needed but playful otherwise. Eating his western breakfast of eggs and sausage, Shinji gazed back up at his adopted mother finally seeing her choice of clothing. "Wearing a business suit to school today? It looks really nice on you," he mumbled. He couldn't say the truth that Hild looked sexy as hell in her finely made Italian business suit.

Pinching her son's cheek, Hild smiled widely at him, "You're going to break so many hearts with that attitude of yours sweetie." But with the listing of would be bed warmers in the hundreds, Hild had to admit he was going to break some headboards too. "As for Aoi-kun, if you're not ready for nudity I guess I can have some lingerie made for her," Hild did spoil on occasion. "Now you hurry on and let your new pet…friend know that she is expected to meet Morrigan for additional training while you're at school," Hild watched with delight as Shinji scampered off.

Materializing the moment Shinji left the room, Morrigan huffed loudly, "Seriously why did you allow that girl to be one of Shin-baby's concubines? She's so…so…meek and goody two shoes! She actually fainted, Hild! How can she serve him if she's like that?" Morrigan didn't care for Aoi's doormat-esque personality. As a succubus Morrigan knew what and how to get men into a nice frothy state and was not believing Aoi could do the same even with training. "Katsuragi is one thing, that woman is sexy as hell, but Sakuraba is just to bland!" Morrigan fixed her hair as she debased Hild's second choice for Shinji's aides.

Finishing her juice, Hild just shook her head slowly. "You young demons now a days are to impatient. You've forgotten what true evil is all about," she said in her haughty manner. Seeing Morrigan's confused glance, Hild continued. "Evil isn't about destroying or pillaging. It is about corrupting innocence and Aoi is the personification of innocence. It'll be so joyous to corrupt her and make her make her Shinji's personal pet," Hild was the CEO of hell for a reason. "A willing and controlling 'innocent flower' is just the thing to start off my darling son's harem," Shinji was exempt from the corruption of innocence, Hild loved that part of her son.

X – Did I mention Hild is fun to write? – X

"Sasami I'm petty sure Shinji doesn't have a Lolita complex so why don't you try for something closer to his age?" Washu joked. Having hacked into Kotoko's eyes, the petite scientist was half watching Sasami as Shinji made his way to school. "It's almost like you don't WANT to go back to school with him," she snickered as Sasami threw a small temper tantrum.

Stomping her foot, looking like a ten year old, Sasami did her best to act her age. "This is hard Washu! I haven't had 'godlike' powers my whole life so this age manipulation thing is tricky!" she whined. Her merging with Tsunami did give her a wealth of power, experience, and knowledge but it did come with a few drawbacks. "And how do I make it so I stop hearing those damn druid's prayers?" she jabbed a petite finger into her ear to stop the hippies requests.

Sparing Misaki a glance, Washu had to be careful of incurring the mother's wrath. "You're lucky you have lovers of nature sending you prayers, Sasami. All I get is programmers begging for their code to compile right," Washu shook her head at the sorry humans. "Just try to think of something else and the prayers fade away," as for the ethical reaction of ignoring prayers Washu didn't care.

Flashing the Goddess a magazine, showing just how much she wasn't paying them any attention, Misaki pointed at a very elegant dress. "I think you should have an earth style wedding Sasami. The catholic wedding dress would look SO cute on you…and the bride's maids outfits would just be darling!" Masaki squealed. Having chosen the date for the wedding already, Misaki was just loving the planning. "What do you want to be Washu-chan a bride's maid or a flower girl?" the mass of strength asked the tiny child.

"Mother could you put that away for now please?" Sasami pouted. "I can't believe you told everybody at school that Jurai was a polygamous kingdom too," Sasami was not liking the idea of sharing despite knowing she had to. "You could have at least waited until we DID get married before letting those harpies know," Sasami wasn't a big fan of Shinji's popularity with the ladies, but was happy that Shinji was oblivious to it.

Just to aggravate her favorite sister, Washu changed into an adult just to show Tsunami how easy it was for her. "Ah, is Sasami being selfish about the hunk of man-meat her soon to be hubby is? Seriously the amount of princess and princess of Jurai is going to explode once Shinji stairs fulfilling his 'royal obligations'" Washu couldn't wait to see the results of some of the more unique genetic mixtures.

Palm to cheek, Misaki giggled, "I'm going to be a grandmother! Oh I can't wait to spoil my grandchildren. Sasami make sure you have a daughter first ok? We can paint the room pink and…" Misaki continued gushing her mind rotting happiness as she envisioned Sasami and Shinji's first child. Being a woman of the modern age, Misaki didn't mind the notion of her little girl becoming a woman, such thoughts were blown out of her mind once Tsunami created life in front of her.

"Well it seems your mother just gave you her blessing to ride the Shinji stallion off into the sunset," Washu stopped trying to figure out Misaki's brain, it was to much like Mihoshi's and that scared Washu to no end. Swapping back to her child form, Washu could see the frustration and embarrassment on Sasami's face. "Look just picture yourself at the age you want to be and will it to happen. The whole deal about 'de aging' was a lie to mess with your head," Washu admitted.

Her face scrunched up cutely in anger, but Tsunami's calming influence kept Sasami from trying out some of her attack abilities. "I should have known you were playing with me!" she gripped as she pictured herself as Shinji knew her. Feeling her body expand to the right proportions to fill out the kimono well, Sasami hummed in pleasure. "That is better. And mommy can we not talk about me being a…a mother yet?" Sasami wasn't in that big a hurry to carry a life in her womb.

Closing the magazine and adding it to the pile of others, it was almost as tall as she was, Misaki's head bobbed. "Well as long as you have some that's fine. OH does Ikari-kun known how to make children? If not I guess I can teach him the way to go about doing it, I'd hate for my darling Sasami's first time not be wonderful, so he has to be skilled," Misaki hummed aloud. "Maybe we should get him several teachers to insure he can please you. He is ok with being dominated right? It is Jurai custom," Misaki produced her whip from hammer space and handed to the bewildered Sasami.

Watching Misaki warp Sasami's brain was always something Washu enjoyed. "Well with his mother hiring women to act as his servants I'm pretty sure he'll know how to handle a sword when it comes time for him to slay Sasami's wedding night," she snorted as gales of laughter broke from her stern visage. Whether Misaki was joking or serious, Washu didn't care as Sasami's near explosion was a riot.

"WASHU, MOTHER Stop talking like that please!" Sasami yelped as the involuntary mental image of Shinji carrying her over the threshold of not only her home but also the threshold of adulthood, Tsunami was paying more attention. Being the goddess of Nature, Tsunami was all about copulation, it was natural after all, and the goddess had been alive since the dawn of time and was ready for a physical relationship. Sasami was not enjoying Tsunami's ample use of imagination. "I'm going to make sure that crazy woman isn't making more poisons," Sasami stomped off to check on Ritsuko leaving the hens to speak.

Clearing the tears of laughter from her eyes, Washu finally managed to stop laughing. "I needed that, been ages since I had a good laugh. Oh Misaki, do you mind if I give Aisha to them as a wedding gift? They can both kiss her after they kiss each other and wake her up," Washu was ready to get the Ctarl-Ctarl out of storage and into action. Misaki however had pulled a new magazine out of the stack she kept hidden from Sasami…her daughter was skittish on bondage, but it was part of royal custom. Washu grabbed a book and assisted more to pass the boredom than anything.

X- Misaki thinks in a way mortal men cannot fathom – X

Today was going better for the pint sized teacher, and Chiyo hoped it continued that way. "Up next class we have the father of Minako Aino, please greet Kenichi," Chiyo gestured the slightly pudgy and balding man in a business suit next to the perky and fame starved solder of Venus. "He works as a programmer for one for…" Chiyo's eyes popped open as she read from the sheet, "Umm…a programmer for 'Late Night Games' so feel free to ask him technical questions," and there went Chiyo's good mood.

Wiping a dribble of sweat from his forehead, the man who made porn games for a living stood before many potential customers. "Yes children, I write video games for a living, and my daughter as you know is Minako," he scanned the boys questioningly. Kenichi knew his daughter had many admirers, having sent a lot of them packing, it was a father's duty to protect his little girl. "Computer programming is a lot simpler than you might believe too," he added as he scanned over the females for game ideas.

Raising his hand a little to quickly for the girls comfort levels, Kensuke couldn't let a chance like this slip by. "Sir, where do you get your inspiration for the games you create?" as a lonely computer geek, Kensuke had many games from Minako's father's company. He especially like the training games, but then again Kensuke had issues with controlling people. "And can you let us know about what you're working on now?" he gushed.

Adjusting his glasses, much the same style as Kensuke's, Kenichi chuckled a little. "Well a lot of my inspiration comes from my wife," he said honestly. It was awkward at first, as all arranged marriages tend to be, but soon Kenichi found that Akemi was just as freaky as he was and well…Minako had noise canceling headphones for a reason. "As for what the company is working on now, it's a collaboration with Nerv of all places. We got some readouts about one of the pilots and making a simulation based on that," they paid a pretty penny for Shinji's readings but advance orders of the game had already paid for it.

Standing up quickly, his body chilled, Shinji frantically looked around the room. "Wait…you haven't done something with Ayanami have you, because I'd have to accidentally fall on your building if that were the case!" Shinji was quick to defend Ayanami's honor. She was one of his first friends in town, he found her fascinating and alluring, and he was not going to let people play erotic games with her as the star!

Waving his hands dismissingly, Kenichi doused the flames of Shinji's horror quickly. "No-no its company policy to never take a woman's likeness without paid compensation and full parental consent. Your little alabaster doll is not featured in our product," Kenichi didn't think anybody would want to see the albino nude anyway, who would?

Sitting down with a heavy sigh of relief, Shinji totally missed the fact that the only other person Kenichi could have meant was himself. "Ok, just making sure," Shinji relaxed a moment only to tense up as Ayanami ran a finger down his spin in appreciation. Having so quickly jumped to her defense, Shinji had no idea that not only had he shot up even further in Rei's heart, but the other females as well.

"Dad stop talking about gross things in front of the class!" Minako squealed in embarrassment as her father preened. Having a father that created geek smut was something Minako wasn't happy about, but she loved the crazy old man regardless. Being a beta tester for the 'Shinji breaking' game was a nice perk too, and Minako was ready to see how closely the game mirrored reality.

Her mind in a constant state of panic, Asuka feared that her mother was going to show up a day early. "Speak faster meat sack so we can get this day over with, I have places to go and sinners to set on fire," Asuka meant hang around with Shinji but she had an image to maintain. "And if I don't get a free copy of that little game of yours I'll sent a horde of incubus to make your dreams very interesting," Asuka did like the idea of playing around and learning how to better interact with her vassal.

Ideas, ideas, and more ideas were just screaming from all the exotic femme fatales, and Kenichi was going to use modified versions of all of them. "Y-yes, if nobody has any other questions, I'll see you at home Mina-chan," he waved at his daughter and headed out of the room. Fantasy games weren't par the course for "Late Night" but after seeing how those girls reacted to the boy that was going to star in their latest creation got him thinking. A demon girl was very nice, but read hair wasn't going to work…maybe dark blue like that woman in the leather bikini he saw outside the school.

X- Naga's wardrobe is scary –X

"So let me get this straight," Maya thumbed her chin as she leaned hard against her chair. Work had been boring as of late and the child-minded genius was spending her time lately playing an odd game with the Magi. "Ikari-kun moved out of your apartment when we was adopted by this Hild woman, and now you've been invited to move in when them? Doesn't that seem odd?" she asked Makoto who was always paying attention to anything Misato related.

Sitting on Maya's console, flashing her blue and white stripes ever so casually noticed by Makoto, Misato nodded. "That about raps it up, yeah. And before you say anything, yes it is the Hild having all those auditions for 'caretakers' and no I'm not one of them," Misato was a step above them so she was the caretakers caretaker. Having spent the night in her new room, across from Shinji's, Misato was going to enjoy working for Hild, namely because it meant she could be with Shinji AND get paid for it! Crossing her legs again, Makoto nosebleed, Misato giggled to herself. "And I'm an official quality tester for her now too," Aoi just barely squeaked by Misato's inspection.

"So Misato gets to have her cake and eat it too while I have to spend my days as a damn invalid!" Ritsuko wasn't taking her continued punishment well. So she may have blabbed a few of Nerv's secrets to a bunch of children, did that mean she had to be blindfolded as well as tied to a chair? She didn't think so. "And would one of you ever so kind backstabbers scratch my nose! It's been itching since yesterday!" Ritsuko was a subscriber to the idea if you yelled loud enough people would listen.

Spinning the good doctor's chair around, Attim proceeded to launch the screaming projectile across the room. "Did either of you hear something?" the buxom black leather clad fighter asked daintily after Ritsuko crashed. "And you do know Katsuragi, that I have an interview with Hild this afternoon too, right? As Shinji-kun's personal bodyguard I need to be where he is," and with her body healed and her life extended Attim had a lot of time to plan.

Finally noticing the pile of man-mush Makoto turned into, Misato kindly pushed the lump off the chair so Attim could sit. "I won't go easy on you if you get the job, I have a rigorous set of necessities for the women under my command," Misato enjoyed having power over Attim. Like every other woman that saw Attim, jealousy was paramount. Then when they learned how close Attim was with Shinji it made them spit concentrated hated so potent it melted diamond. "What have you been up to lately anyway, Shinji's been wondering why you haven't been around," Misato didn't really want to know but thought she might as well ask.

Flexing her arm, incased in Washu's new stealth suit, Attim bounced to Misato's displeasure. "I've had to take it easy for a few days, doctor's orders," Attim admitted. Washu had been adamant that Attim relax as the DNA altering treatment not be rushed. "But I have been keeping an eye on you, and stealing into peoples room's to kiss them in their sleep is a little childish for you isn't it?" Attim was enjoying Washu's technology.

"Oh that's so cute! Misato has a crush on somebody? Who is it? Who!" Maya tittered like a five year old on a sugar high. Typing in several more commands into her console, making the pixilated creature on the screen scream out in silent horror and try to escape the tentacle monster Maya just introduced, Maya gave Misato her full attention. "Is it Makoto or Shigeru? That Kaji person that Asuka keeps as a pet? Maybe one of the commanders?" Maya continued to guess all the men in Misato's life.

A little nervous about making her feelings for Shinji pubic, Misato used the tried and true plan of distraction. "Maya, what exactly are you doing at your console?" Misato asked only partially caring. Seeing what appeared to be an actual angel being savagely assaulted by the most grotesque thing Misato ever saw, it was a little distracting. Misato would kill and skin Attim later for spying on her moment of unknown physical contact with Shinji later.

Pointing at what would have caused Kenichi to offer Maya a job instantly, the tech just shrugged. "A few days ago I noticed something strange in the Magi, turns out it's a game of some sort. I can create creatures to interact with the 'angel' that I trapped in this program. Its really super fun!" Maya gushed at her new plaything. "But anyway, who did you kiss! You have to tell me!" she pleaded.

As it was, Maya was torturing an actual angel that had tried infiltrating Nerv via the computer system. Maya trapped it and currently making the creature wish for death, but death wouldn't come.

Patting down on Misato's shoulder hard, Attim wasn't about to let Misato try another feeble attempt at dodging the issue. "Well you see, Maya, Misato really likes Shinji-kun. And she stole into his room after she knew Morrigan and Kos-Mos were either gone or powered down, and stole a kiss," Attim gave that shoulder under her grasp a firm squeeze. It was a subtle way of letting Misato know to be more careful in the future, less Attim administer some actual punishment.

"Oh that's just crazy awesome, Misato! I bet Shinji would be really happy if you told him that! You haven't yet or you wouldn't be all sneaky, but all things in time right?" Maya didn't give one hoot about the age difference. "Oh pooh I think I finally broke it this time," Maya pointed at the gravestone that had once been her little plaything. "Hmm…Iruel is such a strange name for an angel, but oh well," she didn't let things like this keep her down.

Turning to Attim, brushing off that firm hold, Misato lightly tapped Attim's cheek with her left hand. "For that you'll have an extra special task waiting for you IF you get the job, and if you don't I'm thinking Hild would actually be able to curb stomp even you with your amazon strength," Misato knew Hild was related to Urd and Urd was capable of crazy things. Plus anybody that could get her to walk out in front of a crowd in what was akin to wet toilet paper had to be formidable.

Standing up straight and checking her watch, Attim rolled her eyes lazily. "I can't wait to see what you have planned, but it'll have to wait for another day. Though I suspect that I'll be replacing you and taking that room of yours after Hild sees just what I have to offer her in ways of service," Attim sauntered off to get ready for the interview. She had no real idea what Hild was hiring these women for, Attim had been busy with Washu.

She was in for a very shocking reveal once Hild told her what the position was all about.

X- Crazy attractive artificially aged women are hard to come by –X

Standing in front of her child's class, Hild was in her natural element. In a cream colored business suit that stopped just below the knee showing off her bronze calves, a thin black tie, and her assorted hair bindings, Hild literally blew the minds of the students. The boys nearly made a mess of themselves, and the girls wanted to swallow their tongues in jealousy of Hild's beauty. And she knew it, and loved it.

Shinji was a different issue however, as he saw her now as a parent and not the smoldering bastion of lust that she was conveying to the other students. To put it simply, Shinji was worried the other kids would find some fault with her and mock him copiously. Added to the confusion was the fact that after Chiyo announced Hild's turn and the CEO of hell walked into the room not a sound was made. He was a little concerned.

Once the ability to open her mouth and make the pretty sounds come out of it, Chiyo tried not to drop the sheet with Hild's information. "L-Like I said students, this is Hild, sorry I don't have a last name on my sheet, and she-she is a CEO of I can't pronounce this word," the child teacher was so flustered that even simple actions were hard. Being in the presence of somebody like Hild was something normal people never know, but it was akin to realizing that you were a very small creature before a very large one.

Pinching Chiyo's cheek playfully, Hild was adoring her little impact on the normals. "Aren't you just the most charming teacher I've ever seen? Yes you are hun!" Hild clapped her hands together and turned to face the class that would have done anything Hild asked. "And you are just about the most well behaved students I've seen too. But where is the fun in being good?" she prodded her temple with her index finger and struck a pose that sent two boys down with blood loss.

Her own mind fought the urge to run screaming in terror of the overflowing sexuality and power of Shinji's mother, Chiyo held her sanity by a thin strand. "D-Does anybody have a question for H-Hild-san?" Chiyo had a question she wanted to ask but sagely did not. _If I ask her what she is I don't think I'd like the answer. _She did not want to anger this woman, but she didn't know why. Attractive people were a dime a dozen, but something about Hild screamed out danger like the sirens did in Silent Hill.

Touji, in all his idiot glory, spoke first. "What do you do for a living, Ma'am?" Even the jock was smart enough to not speak improperly or out of line. His eyes feasted on the fine specimen before him, but his brain was quick to inform him that pretty things can be deadly. _And that is Shinji's mother. From a distance Ken and I were drooling, but up close I'm freaking shivering! _Hild had a powerful affect.

Sitting in the chair provided, Hild daintily set her hands on her lap. "No need to be so formal or afraid my darlings. Mama-Hild won't hurt you, unless you do something to deserve it," Hild said with sincerity. Some of these girls had turned in applications to be her boy's servants, and Hild was making this a business meeting and a school event. "Now to address you question Suzu-chan," Hild made it a point to know her son's friends, "I deal in commodities."

Souls were commodities in hell and heaven, and Hild did her job perfectly. "What I do is a lot like working with the stock market. Buy low and sell high, corner the market and squish the competition until it is a fine paste in your hands," Hild made a fist and when she opened it held an apple in her hand, much to the collective gasps and applause of the students. Tossing the apple to Usagi, Hild liked the looks of that one, "Does anybody else have a question for this boring biddy of a CEO?"

Finding Hild to be the personification of everything she ever wanted to be, Minako was quick with her outstretched hand. "Your hair, makeup, even your clothing are just so perfect, how do you do it?" as a teenage girl Minako spent her fair share of time primping and prepping. Hey if you wanted to catch the most highly contested male in Tokyo-3 you had to look your best, and getting in good with the mother was a good move too.

Tossing that girl an orange, Hild pulled at the aforementioned hair. Reading people is what Hild excelled at, and she knew without a doubt what type of person Minako was. "Experience mostly my dear, trying new things, different things, and before I knew it I had a good system going, if you'd like you can come over and I can give you a few tips," Hild reclined in her chair and let the students bask in her unbridled power.

Slowly more students started asking Hild questions, and each question was answered and a new piece of fruit given to the child. As the questions and fruit were dispensed the class opened up more and more to the woman, the fear of her started to depart but they still felt so insignificant before her.

"Do you have a boyfriend?" Usagi asked after she finished eating her apple and there was a lull in the questions. "And do you have any tips for asking boys out that you really like?" Usagi's eye fidgeted and she stole a glance at the now relaxed Ikari.

The tiniest of frowns crested Hild's full lips as she thought about that little question. "Sadly no I don't have a lover, the last one didn't work out so well, but don't let fear stop you from going up to that boy or girl you like and exploring personal space," Hild was all about basking in the glories of what having a body could offer. Winking at her son, "You have to be comfortable with yourself before you can make anybody else feel good."

"Dude man, your mom is like hella sexy…I'd think she was a super model if she didn't say she was a CEO of whatever company she works for," Kensuke gushed as Hild continued to field questions, now mostly from the girls on the subject of relationships. "How did you meet her anyway, and what did you do to have her adopt you?" that was the oddest thing Kensuke couldn't figure out. Somehow Shinji meet Hild and made such an impression that the woman adopted him.

Before Shinji could reply, Hild tossed Kensuke a banana, "You're supposed to ask ME the questions cutie." Hild did like the geek look, her type was more of the brain than the brawn anyway. "As for what happened with my son and me, its personal so don't pry sweetie. Needless to say I love that boy as my own and vice versa," she locked eyes with Shinji and the pair had no doubt of the words validity. But never one to stew on emotional issues, "Which brings me to my parting words," Hild held out her hands to calm the uproar of students wanting more time with her. "Now, now kids its unbecoming to beg. All I have to say is that I'm currently hiring some…workers…for my home and some of you young ladies look like you might fit the bill. So if you're interested just come to my place with Shin-baby and we'll see how things work out," between the sheets preferably but Hild didn't mind some unusual places for slap and tickle and Shinji would need to be skilled at those as well.

Much like the day before, Shinji noticed a crazy shift in the female populace as Hild bowed politely and left the room. "Why did she have to put it that way…they have no idea what she meant!" Shinji whined to Touji and Kensuke and got absolutely zero sympathy. Knowing that Hild was attempting to hire damn concubines for him, Shinji did NOT want to walk some unsuspecting girl to his home only to have them learn what Hild was hiring for! _They'd think I'm some pervert or something! There is no way they'd want to be…be like that!_

Oh how little Shinji knew how wrong he was, but that was half the fun for Hild anyway.

Outside the school as Hild made her way to the meeting with Attim, the CEO of hell noticed somebody she hadn't expected to see. "Oh Naga-kun, you're little girl is busy setting up wardings and bindings to seal you…she's so cute when she's feeling inferior to you," Hild pegged Asuka down straight.

Letting out her signature laugh, Naga the White Serpent wouldn't have suspected any less of her darling daughter. "Oh-ho-ho-ho its hard to be this beautiful and not have her angry at me for it. I mean her little breasts remind me of Lina so much…I guess she takes after her father in the chest region," Naga continued to laugh as Hild left…and she bounced with ever laugh.

X- Naga's costume is so bizarre but then again a lot of fantasy armor has less is more –X

Author notes

Eugh…I fell sick today for some reason. Maybe to much sun…Well hope you liked this and continue to support this oddity that just doesn't seem to end…

Ja Mata

Zentrodie


	45. So much collateral damage

Standard Disclaimer

I think I like the pool a little to much. Was having a horrible day, jump in the pool, and poof everything is sparkle shimmer awesome. Not much going on over here save that and work. Hope you all are enjoying the pleasant weather

X-X

What We Make of It

Chapter 45 – Mother Issues

Or

Why Asuka is Afraid of Naga

"So you'll be going to school again?" Rei asked her fellow blue haired companion. The morning sun was barely cutting through the thick cloud cover that promised rain. Rei had attempted to visit Shinji, but was turned away at the door by Morrigan, whom Rei was starting to dislike intensely. "And where is your furry companion, I have not seen the cabbit in some time," her tone denoted the sadness quite well. Everybody loves Ryo-Oki.

Holding one of her now longer pigtails, Sasami was debating the idea of getting a hair cut. With the humidity rising, her hair hung lifeless and flat as it drug across the ground. "Mother is planning a meeting with Shinji's mother and Washu later today, and whenever mother is around I leave Ryo-Oki with her to keep the collateral damage down," Sasami moaned. It was hard having a mother that was so ditzy yet so powerful. Looking at the third member of the triad, "You are unusually quiet today, something wrong Soryu?"

An eerie smile beset Rei's generally expressionless face, more proof that she needed to stop reading Lady X Butlers. "Soryu is upset that all her attempts to prevent her mother from being at school today have failed," Rei said with great relish. Having born witness to Asuka's expulsion from the Hild/Ikari residence, Rei was overjoyed to see the red head suffer. Passing a gaggle of fellow students, Rei scanned the throng of humanity for her would be boyfriend.

"She's just too powerful…it must come from those stupid breast or those damn thighs, or her silky hair…damn it!" Asuka seethed and a plume of fire erupted from between her clenched teeth. Naga was a mirror Asuka compared herself to only to find herself failing to live up to the standards 'The White Serpent' set. Personality wise, however, Asuka and Naga were near clones of one another, which made living together interesting.

Watching as Minako rushed ran past them with a smile that promised horrible things, Sasami just shrugged at the soon-to-be idol. "Why do you dislike your mother so much, Asuka?" Sasami had a few mother issues herself but still loved the crazy woman. Over the last few days however, Sasami noticed that Asuka appeared to be living in abject fear. Fear was not something anybody thought of when Asuka came to mind…unless it was them fearing for their own lives.

Coming to a halt just before the doors to the school, Asuka cupped a hand to her ear and focused. If her mother was around she'd be doing what she always did, and that involved laughing that obnoxious laugh of hers. Nothing gave Naga away faster than that laugh, a laugh Sasami would have recognized coming from her sister. When no ear splitting 'oh-hoho-ho'ing was heard, Asuka let out a deep breath.

"You have no idea what it was like growing up with that woman," Asuka sounded tired. Leaning against the building, she was going to wait for her vassal to remind him NOT to mention anything to Naga about anything, not if he liked having his flesh. "Mother has a thing for red hair, something about one of her rivals, so when I was born with this," she grabbed her hair and yanked on it. "Mother saw it as a way of getting revenge. Her daughter was going to be the most powerful red haired sorceress, not her rival," Asuka didn't mind that though. Being raised to match spells with Lina Inverse gave Asuka near unlimited power and that was alright in her book.

Covering her sickening smile, Rei was as observant as ever. "But if that's the case, why do you keep covering yourself when you talk about your mother? If your fear comes from her treatment of you, does that mean she tried teaching you things that involved…" Rei gestured to Asuka's body and tilted her head slightly. It was a nervous tick, but Rei had seen it time and time again. More recently Asuka was becoming more concerned about her appearance, well when Shinji was involved.

Blushing a smidgen, a nearby student's book report burst into flames as a result, Asuka stomped her foot. "Its just mom is…she's just so…" Asuka made an hourglass pantomime with her hands and her eyes widened. Simply put Naga had a physique that was nearly impossible to emulate. Top heavy…excessively, a waist that was stupidly slim, and legs that went on till next Tuesday. "And the way she dresses…how she talks to men…she's so embarrassing!" Asuka finally admitted.

Transforming into the form of Tsunami, Sasami was going to milk this out just as Rei was. With Asuka already soul linked with Shinji, it made the blue-haired duo envious. "So she has a body like mine?" Sasami/Tsunami asked innocently enough but knowing her form was beyond human perfection.

Several students witnessing the transformation balked, looked again, rubbed their eyes, and in most cases fell over foaming at the mouth. While Sasami had been a cute enough girl, Tsunami was almost blindingly so. Girls saw the thick mane of hair, upturn nose, and excessive high and were green with envy.

Asuka however was not impressed and snorted loudly and looked away. "You have nothing on my mother…just wait and see…and you will whether you want to or not," Asuka's tone was exasperated and angry. "And what are you snickering at Wondergirl? Little miss goddess here does look better than me, but I still look better than you. Plus I'm not a meat sack!" Asuka roared.

With her index finger, Rei wiped away a tear of laughter. Sure Asuka was more attractive than her in some forms, but Rei knew Shinji didn't care about such things so it didn't matter. "It is just cute to see the princess of hell has mother issues and an inferiority complex. And it's is funny to see another princess acting high and mighty because she can make herself into an old maid at will," Rei burst into fresh peals of laughter as both Sasami and Asuka paled.

"I am not an old maid!/I do not have an inferiority complex!" the princesses bellowed in perfect unison as they stomped on the ground. Twin cracks erupted along the ground and splintered across the quad from their feet. Several small earthquakes were triggered in other areas of Japan as a result, but no damage was caused. Rei was on the ground, partially from the shock, but more from the giggle fit she was having.

As the trio of girls continued to subtlety berate each other, Minako was making good on a golden opportunity. Her father was having a few issues ironing out the last few kinks in his current game, and if Shinji helped it would mean an early release. Minako was quick to offer a solution. Rushing to the classroom, the occasionally absentminded girl found her target, "Shin-chan! Do you have a minute to talk?"

Having been teleported to the bathroom from the house, Shinji had been afraid he'd be late to school after his rather longer lunch. Hild had a late night meeting followed by several days of fierce negotiation so he'd be in Tira and Chocolates care for the time being. "S-sure, Minako, w-what can I do for you?" he was still shy around attractive women despite all his exposure.

Sitting the Touji's seat, the jock was talking to Kensuke by the window anyway, Minako leaned in close. Taking a good whiff of Shinji's scent, mellow and pleasing, Minako almost forgot why she started talking to him. Shaking her head clear of the imagined end result of her plan, "M-my father wants to know if you can come by after school today. He has a few questions for you about that game he's making and it would really help him out. You can stay for dinner as payment, my mom makes a killer meal," Minako tittered.

"I don't have any tests at Nerv today so sure," Shinji blinked rapidly as he took in what Minako said. Despite his popularity, it was a rare day when a girl actually approached him and asked him to visit. Being one of the few days that Nerv actually didn't need him to practice, why they needed the Eva's was anybodies guess at this point, he had wondered about his meal. "I'll let my guardians know about it, what time should I be over?" he just hoped Sasami/Asuka/Rei/Attim/Misato/Aoi/ext wouldn't be upset.

Leaning in closer, Minako grabbed Shinji's arm and hugged it. Batting her eyelashes at him expertly, she broke all his defenses with her electric smile. "Why don't you just come home with me after school? You don't have plans right?" she hoped anyway. With the other scouts, save Usagi, already having had him over it was Minako's turn to show them how things were really done. _I'll have him eating out of the palm of my hand by the time I'm done! _Not that she wasn't already eating out of his.

X- When Sailor Senshi attack –X

Sitting in what had at one time been the more foreboding and threatening room in existence, Gendo Ikari mourned. It wasn't the loss of his son to Hild, it wasn't the loss of Rei to his son, it wasn't the loss of his wife to a giant purple phallic mecha, no he mourned the loss of his power. His seat of power was gone, just like his hair, not that anybody knew he wore a wig.

The chair in which he sat was a painful foldout one with no padding. The remains of his desk were smoldering ash that occasionally got in his eyes bring out tears. The eldritch symbols that once mirrored the floor and ceiling had been obliterated and replaced with the actual divine scripture. Gendo couldn't fathom what Hild had created, but to any being from a higher plane would have instantly fell to the ground laughing.

"My life sucks," Gendo moaned and pulled a brandy hipflask from his pocket and helped himself to a drink. He had barely escaped the investors meeting, or as he used to think 'those stupid rich fools that will never catch on'. But his wife had ruined that little exploit of his by marring the child that should have been a girl off before Gendo knew what was happening.

Opening the door to Gendo's office, Fuyutski made a wide gesture with his hand, "As you can see we just left it like this after Gendo was run off. You can set it up however you wish Misaki-san." Having met Misaki back when Yui and the woman were friends, Kozo was glad the woman wanted to hold the reception for the wedding at Nerv. "Soryu did cause it to have the smell of brimstone, but I'm sure we can fix that," he apologized for Asuka's earlier trashing of the room.

Clasping her hands together, Misaki accidentally broke the door as she shut it. "Ooops, guess I'm a little excited about this. I do love parties!" she cooed. Kozo was an odd man, but he had been one of Yui's good friends, and in turn became well acquainted with her. Coming to a halt, Misaki saw somebody she had so wished to meet after hearing of Shinji's painful upbringing. "Gendo…how did you get in here?" Misaki's voice was neutral but her eyes hardened.

"Gendo! I thought you would have been drawn and quartered from all those parents you whored you son to!" Kozo had heard of the events, but couldn't prohibit them as Gendo was at the time Shinji's legal guardian. Yui's child deserved more than to be sold again and again to men hoping to garner some political or financial edge with Nerv. Said daughters however were more than keen on the idea of marrying a hero. "And how did you bypass security, I had your name removed from the access files" Kozo was going to make amends to Yui for not helping Shinji more in the past.

Rubbing the sleeve of his dirty uniform across his face, Gendo cleaned it of the run off liquor. "I have more secrets than you can conceive of old man, and you…who the hell are you anyway?" Gendo wobbled a bit in his chair. The light pouring in from the Geo-Front through his gargantuan window hurt his eyes and made his head hurt. To much booze on an empty stomach was making for a very drunk ex-commander. "And what the hell are you doing in MY office…you wouldn't be here if it wasn't for me promising Yui I wouldn't fire you!" he spat out and took another drink.

Hand to cheek, Misaki gracefully fluttered across the room to what had once been Gendo's throne. "My, my are you drunk Ikari-kun?" she asked. It was a formality, but one that Misaki didn't like. Gendo had no right to keep Yui's surname, and once she had her way he'd be stripped of it. Swiping the small flask from Gendo's unsteady fingers, Misaki brought it to her nose and took a whiff. "And on such poor quality alcohol too is a shame. I hope Shinji doesn't have your low tolerance," Misaki giggled as she sealed the flask and tossed it at Gendo.

"We're in your 'old' office," Fuyutski stressed old as hard as possible. "Because Misaki-san is going to use it to hold the reception for her daughter and Shinji's wedding. She thought it would do him good to have pleasant memories tied to this room rather than the fear and intimidation you forced upon him in it," Kozo didn't know if he felt pity or disgust for the figure that Gendo became. "How DID you escape those people you bilked?" he couldn't help but ask.

Stuffing the flask into his jackets inner pocket, Gendo grimaced like a scolded child. "Same way I got into that mess. I lied and told each one that they secretly were the one that was going to get the damn whelp. Only Sakuraba seemed to not give a shit, apparently his daughter ran off and became a whore," Gendo chuckled a little at that. The notion that the ever prim and proper rose of the Sakuraba family now a common gutter woman. "Hell if I can see him to a few more idiots maybe I'll even BUY Sakuraba's daughter from whatever pimp she stupidly fell for," his eyes fogged over a little and he nearly fell from his chair.

Striking her palm with her fist, Misaki made the connection Gendo didn't know was there. "Oh that must have been Hild-chan's little girl! She was such a darling, and so well behaved too," Misaki liked Aoi mainly cause the timid flower had mistaken her for Sasami's sister. Leaning over, facing Gendo directly she could smell the cheap stench of his alcohol riddled breath. "As it is, Gendo, Aoi is now your son's servant, and I doubt Hild-chan would be willing to part with her for anything less than your soul. Not that she'd even want that," Misaki didn't look or sound nearly as enraged as she was.

Rolling his eyes, Gendo had no clue how close he was to signing his own death warrant. "What would that whelp do with a woman like that anyway…little bastard probable gay or a closet pervert or something. Only thing he's good for is extorting money out of idiots. But NO! My wife had to go and make a deal with some retard and marry him to whatever backwater trash of a daughter she had," Gendo never did meet Misaki before so he could be forgive for that, mostly.

Having no respect for the man himself, but respect for life, Kozo was leery of letting Gendo continue his drunken rambling. "Gendo, I think it would be best if you left. If I have to get Attim in here to get you out, I doubt she'd be gentle with you," Kozo knew for a fact Attim wanted to crush Gendo's pelvis. Alternating between the half-laden eyes of his previous boss and the politely smiling face of Misaki, Kozo knew bad things were coming. "I think I left my cake in the oven," he lied, it was a stupid lie but nobody was listening to him, and with that Kozo ran leaving Gendo to his deserved fate.

Cracking her knuckles, Misaki was going to enjoy this on levels that were borderline obscene. "Why I think I must enlighten you on a manner of things, my dear idiot," her voice honey sweet and light as air. When she walked out of the room twenty minutes later, sweat trickling down her brow, Misaki did feel worlds better.

As for Gendo, your imagination would be best to picture what she did. It was paramount to what a fan's mental reaction to their favorite show being cancelled mid-season because one person's reaction. It wasn't pretty, it wasn't kind, but it was well-well deserved.

X- And I think that's the last we'll see of Gendo for a long time –X

It was a failed experiment. She learned in some things mankind was not meant to meddle or face dire consequences. But it was to late, the genie was out of the bottle and nothing could be done to reverse the damage that had been caused. On the plus side however, it was time for the last parent so Chiyo didn't need to think about it anymore. Her hope had been to learn how to handle assembly of crazed students better, as she believe it was impossible for the parents to be worse.

She was wrong on so many levels it made it right and then wrong all over again. No matter, she had a date with Sakaki tonight and she'd let the older woman's attempts to apologize to her ease the hectic energies in her body. Her head already hurt from the previous three parents, but Chiyo was hoping to end the nightmare. "And for the last parent of the day and for the week we have Asuka's mother Naga. Naga-san would you please come in?" Chiyo asked and gestured to the door.

In Asuka's defense she hadn't firebombed the school or threaten to maim anybody yet regarding her mother. Even demons can have good days. Our resident demonic princess was busy chewing her fingernails and debating scooping up her vassal and fleeing the country.

Striding through the door with the idiotic confidence that accompanies legendary powers, Naga bounced with ever step. "My what a tiny girl you are, must be hard getting around on those teeny legs," Naga then laughed and nearly caused the windows to break. Clad in what she called her 'evil sorceress' ensemble, Naga ushered a few boys into unconsciousness instantly. "Hello children, as you are wondering it is true that Asuka is my cherished daughter. Though I doubt you see the resemblance," she laughed again and sent two girls down with the fits.

"N-N-Naga-san you can't come into a school wearing something like that! It's indecent!" Chiyo screeched as she took in Naga's getup. It was the equivalent of wearing a leather bikini and panties, but the cape and mantle were of high style. "Children shouldn't be seeing such things…you need to cover up!" Chiyo again tried not to feel the jealous pangs that Naga's impossible figure created in every woman that saw her.

Gently smacking her own rump, its firmness overwhelmed yet another student, Naga laughed again…as she is oft to do. "Now, now, they have to get used to beauty at some time in their lives," she loved every minute of it. "Now who has a question for one of the queens of hell? Or would you rather I just blow up that odd halo thing that's hovering over the city?" Naga quipped pointing at the latest angel to show up without any notice.

Not bothered by Naga, much less anything of this earth, Usagi smiled brightly at the woman. "So what do you do for a living? Being a queen is one thing, but what do you actually do?" Usagi loved the cute skull festooned between Naga's oversized melons.

Asuka was now trying to merge with her desk to avoid further embarrassment from her mother. Rei wasn't helping by instant messaging the demonic princess every time Naga bounced in some form or another.

"I'm a sorceress," Naga said simply enjoying the fact that the pigtailed girl believed the queen part. "I conjure spirits, elements, and if you know how sensations so deep you'd lose your mind," Naga was proud of her skills. Asuka's father was easily captivated by everything and anything Naga did, just the way 'The White Serpent' wanted it. "Care for a showing?" she asked moving towards the window.

Touji's eyes went up and down in rhythm with Naga's steps. "Dude, Asuka's mom is a stripper! She has to be! I mean that costume, the whole 'sorceress' thing. I bet she pulls a rabbit out of her…" Touji then was rendered mute as Asuka bounced a desk off the back of his head to prevent further debasement of her mother.

Having picked up a few tricks from her old rival over the years, Naga wanted to open with a bang. "DRAGON-SLAVE!" she finished her incantation and fired a beam of concentrated death at the duel haloed angel that was hoping to open up a diplomatic solution with the humans. Its remains were scattered across the sky and in deep space. Once the ringing of ears stopped and hearing was possible again, "Oh-hohoho, it is hard to be THIS beautiful and THIS powerful, but I make due."

A collective paling of the students followed quickly after. Some like the Sailor Senshi, Shinji, and extra plainer entities weren't that impressed, but normal students nearly wet themselves. Magic existed and this woman had more power in her hand that a legion of tanks. Worlds were opening, strange and new concepts once thought impossible now shimmered with their newness, was what the smarter students thought. The dumber just liked the pretty colors.

"Would anybody else like an encore performance?" Naga asked drawing her cape up to her chin and sexily grinning at Shinji. Oh yes, Naga knew about Shinji and her daughter's soul pledge quiet well. Hild had been keeping Naga up to date on the occurrences and status of Asuka's path along adulthood. "I can perform many things to many people…I even have techniques to split myself into multiple copies of myself…." Naga would have continue her oral seduction of her daughters vassal had the book not bounced off her head. "ASUKA! What did I tell you about attacks to the head and face?" Naga yelled without having to look.

Heaving another desk, this time with student, at her mother, Asuka was through watching her mother try and play with her toys. "That I should do it as much as possible so I ruin their future after the fight. But are you more afraid I'd kill that last brain cell you have!" Asuka's face was crimson. She knew Naga was just playing with Shinji, Naga was a loyal wife after all, but it didn't help that Asuka was nervous Shinji WOULD be wooed by the nymph her mother was.

Deftly avoiding the screaming teenager, Naga shrugged. "I did teach you that didn't I, no matter. Mommy just wanted to make sure that her little girl had a good man, and not some brain dead meat sack," Naga glided right up to Shinji's side and ran a finger across his arm. "Though anybody that is so famous in all realms would be worthy of my daughter," Naga approved of Asuka and Shinji's pairing. Kissing his cheek, "Be gentle with my daughter, she doesn't have the cushioning that her mother has."

Asuka made a sound, not quite a scream and not quite a cry, but it did promise untold pain and suffering to anybody that got in her way. Flying at her mother, Asuka was quickly wrapped in Naga's cape and vanished into it as if she never existed. Opening her eyes, some thirty miles away from town, the homicidal princess started flying back.

X- Seriously if you've never seen a picture of Naga look her up, its freakish –X

Sitting on the light yellow blanket on Minako's bed, Shinji tugged at his collar nervously. The meal had been awkward, not because of Minako but because of her parents near groping of each other during the meal. Shinji was mystified by the pairing. Both mother and father were fairly normal looking middle aged people, but they acted like teenagers. The questions her father asked had been strange too, but he answered them truthfully, and when they got a little to personal Minako would conveniently find a reason to leave the room.

After the meal, and the oddity of being around Minako's parents, the boy was escorted to the room with Minako's sign on it properly telling everybody whose domain they were about to enter. Finding no chairs, but a nice bed with a table next to it, Shinji was intimidated, and the cat in her room appeared to be glaring at him. When she offered to get him a little dessert and some lemonade he bashfully accepted and sat down.

He knew he should have left after the meal, it was getting dark and Tira and Chocolate were adamant he get home before to late. But he couldn't refuse that face, something about Minako's pleading look forced him into the girl's domain. It was cute, filled with stuffed animals, the wall littered with posters of bands, and had a feeling of peace and life that Shinji admitted his own room lacked.

Offering his hand to the cat on the bed with him, "How are you doing?" He would have pet the creature, but the white cat just turned up its nose and walked out of the room. "Guess he's just as comfortable with me being her as I am," he nervously laughed. Minako was again a beautiful and energetic woman that made the boy nervous and skittish around. She said she had something she wanted him to help her with before he left, and well he was a sucker for helping people.

Coming back into the room, making sure her parents were occupied in the lower levels of the house, Minako set a plate of cookies and two glasses on the table by her bed. "Hope I didn't keep you waiting to long, Shinji," her natural poise and grace were heavily weaving with her nervousness. Suddenly it wasn't so simple, and she could see how the other girls failed. "What do you think of my room?" she couldn't believe her lame question.

Taking one of the cookies, Shinji sampled it. It was a cinnamon topped sugar cookie cut in the shape of a heart. Deep down he knew what it meant, but like always he refused to accept that reality and substituted his own. "It's really cute, Minako, it suits you perfectly," he nearly dropped his cookie after he realized he just made a clumsy pick-up attempt. He covered by downing nearly half the glass of lemonade.

Unable to keep facing the boy, Minako's face was scarlet as she too sampled one of the cookies she made. They weren't the best, but they had a sweet taste. Her room seemed really small suddenly as she sat next to this boy. She had liked boys before, had tried dating a few, but it never felt like this. In silence she just sat next to him and tried to calm herself to the point she could enact her plan.

After several minutes passed, Shinji nervously got up the courage to ask, "You said you needed my help for something?" The silence was loud, nearly deafening. From deep inside the house he could hear the television playing, no doubt her parents on the couch watching each other and not the glowing box. That only made Shinji more aware of the presence next to him.

Broken from her mild mental coma Minako about jumped out of her skin. "YEAH!" she shouted as she bounced back down and effortlessly into the body next to hers. "There is a mouse in my room…I keep snacks in here and I've noticed it typically hides behind my bed." This was where it got tricky for her to keep up the ruse, "I need you to lie on my bed, stick your arm under one side and try and flush it out towards me." She was going to 'fall' on him when he did this and with her arms around him let what happened happen.

Swallowing hard, Shinji nodded once, "A-alright I can do that, do you have something to catch it in?" He had to admit it would be easier to capture something if one person flushed it out and another caught it. But why hadn't her parents helped, or even the cat. Getting to his knees he scooted over to the wall and the edge of the bed. With one last look at Minako who had a shoebox in her hand, he nodded. "Ready?" he asked with an incredibly dry mouth.

"More than you know," she licked her lips as she watched Shinji's tight rump flatten out as he laid down. She could see him sticking his arm down the side of the bed closest to the wall, unsuspecting and ripe for the plucking. Not looking at her, she inched closer and closer to him, silently and deliberately. Maybe she'd just call his name and kiss him when he turned his head to face her. After she'd present him with the formal request to join the Senshi as a support member.

That was until Shinji ruined her plan by doing exactly what she asked for. "I feel it, it's running your way Minako!" Shinji said excitedly. His fingers had brushed up against the course fur of the unwanted intruder that Minako didn't know she actually had living in her room.

Eye blinking quick and hard, Minako stopped her near assault on Shinji and looked down as she felt tiny scratches on her foot. "M-m-m-mouse?" she squeaked. The mouse looked up at her, it was cute and under normal circumstances it wouldn't have been an issue. Minako however was terrified of said creatures and watching as it stared up at her with its beady little eyes, she panicked. "MOUSE!" she screamed and took a step back to hard, tumbled over her table and fell. Her head connected with the floor with a mighty 'conk' and she was out like a light.

The door to her room erupted almost instantly as Kenichi rushed to his daughters aid. "I knew we had a mouse problem!" he expelled as the mouse took up residence on Minako's now exposed belly. Scoping his daughter up in his arms, he proved to be far stronger than he looked. "Sorry about that Shinji-kun, but princess here is going to need some time to recover. Would you mind taking off so I can put her to bed?" he had to admit he liked Shinji a lot more than the other boys Minako brought home, especially now after questioning him.

Rolling off the bed, Shinji grabbed the mouse, not painfully, and nodded. "Sure thing, sir, sorry about all the racket. I was just trying to help her get ride of this guy here," Shinji brought the mouse up to his nose and smiled at it. It was really a cute creature…who had been bribed by Artemis just in case Minako did have a guy over that he wanted gone.

Leaving the Aino abode, Shinji let the mouse go free into the night. It found the hole that lead to the kitchen and the waiting white feline had the cheese already prepared for him.

X- Plans tend to fail a lot in this story –X

In Hild's rented office space, Misaki sat happily with the women she summoned for an important meeting. "I'm glad you all had time to meet with me. Hild I know you're about to leave on a business trip, Naga-san you've a busy social calendar, and Washu…you do whatever you want," Misaki bowed lightly to each of the assembled women.

Her face marred by soot, Asuka's parting fireball from earlier in the day before rushing off to antagonize Sasami, Naga crossed her shapely legs in the lush chair she sat in. "Now whatever did you call us all for Misaki? I have a daughter that needs some severe mother daughter bonding…sorry Hild," Naga winced at the mentioning of daughters. It was well known that the CEO had a touchy relationship with her half-goddess offspring.

Gently gesturing at Naga, Hild just smiled complacently. "Things between Urd and I are a lot better now thanks to my son, so no offense taken Naga," Hild knew the owners wives had to be tended to specially or she might find herself replaced. Turning to the woman that summoned them all, "But I have to agree with Naga, why did you call all of here Misaki? You wanted to say goodbye before taking off to that planet of yours?" Hild had an inkling of what Misaki was up to, and agreed to it if it was what she thought.

"Not going to force all of us to pool our powers together to find Tenchi and the others are you?" Washu asked raising an eyebrow. The group of inter-dimensional travels likely didn't want to be found, so Washu wasn't to keen on forcing them back into a world where they had to pay taxes. "Cause I can do that whenever I want, but I think they're happier off with no adult supervision," and those kids had a lot of pent up emotions needing to get released.

Her expression was electric joy as she handed the women envelopes, and Misaki was bouncing in her seat. "No it's not that Washu. It's simple with all of us here on Earth, I figured why not have Sasami and Shinji's wedding now? Not this very day but say in two or three weeks? It'd be a long trip home and back again if we waited the year, and I see no reason not to just have the ceremony quicker," and Misaki hated waiting for anything. If patience was a virtue, Misaki was a vagrant.

Naga's eyes went slim as she leaned forward, "And where do Asuka and I fit into this little picture?" Their had to be a reason that this woman brazenly summoned her just to say the mortal her daughter was pledged to should get married to somebody else. Naga was not above locking Asuka and Shinji in a room until they were so smitten with each other that the worlds shook.

"Well as Jurai is a polygamous state and since your daughter is pledged body and soul to Shinji-kun, I was thinking…get a few marriages out of the way to start with," Misaki said simply enough. "With Jurain's and humans able to feed off the royal trees and extending their lives into the millennia its normal to have a large grouping of wives for the king. Women can have concubines as well if they wish, but the last few queens never did. So if you were willing Naga, I was thinking your Asuka could be Shinji-kun's number to. Sasami being his first of course, she is of royal decent," Misaki had to lay a few ground rules.

Seeing Naga smiling wide, Hild for a moment hated the demonic want for power as it just swayed Naga into the deal. "I'm not sure if I like this idea Misaki. I like you, love your daughter, but my son isn't some piece of meat. As I see it the deal you made with Yui Ikari is void now that I'm legally his mother," Hild wanted to insure a few things. "But if you'll let Urd be his number three AND he can keep the concubines I'm hiring then I'll consent to this little…wedding of yours," Hild would hate not being able to plan it, but win some lose some.

Washu stammered for a moment in long incomprehensible phrases. Once the audacity of Hild's request was broken down into rational bits she spoke, "What the hell is wrong with you! That's sick! You want your adopted son to marry your daughter? Does anybody see anything wrong with this?" Washu sure as hell did.

"Assuming Urd wants to, and if I remember what my surveillance demons showed me last time Shinji visited, Urd loves him in more than a brotherly way. As demons have no care for non-blood related pairings, it would be perfectly fine. It brings my family closer together, and I see to it my son AND my daughter have a wonderful life," Hild wanted nothing else.

Coming into existence with a loud pop, Kanako the fifth goddess of creation pointed an accusing finger at Hild. "This is all because I left you ISN'T it!" Kanako couldn't help but spy on Hild once her former lover was back on earth. "Because you can't have a nice relationship with our daughter you're trying to rub this whole 'non-blood relation' thing in my face!" Kanako still wanted to be with Keitaro so bad it caused droughts in some small countries.

Angrily, Hild got out of her chair and rushed Kanako and put one of her long and sharp nails under the goddess's throat. "No, my hatred for you comes from the fact you lied to me. When we met you were a man, but you run off to become a timid female because you fell in love with a mortal, a mortal you made it so you can't have. You abandoned me after I was pregnant, and then made it so I couldn't see my daughter. Rubbing this in your face is just the cream on the pie, now get out of my sight," Hild's anger chilled the room.

Then Misaki hugged both Hild and Kanako together in a mighty bear hug. "Let's not fight! I'll agree to your terms on the condition both Urd and Shinji-kun wish for it," she sobbed hating seeing anybody fight. Misaki wouldn't relinquish her hold on the quarrelling pair for neigh on five minutes when they finally relented to her demands.

Sasami and Shinji were going to be married in less than a month, followed instantly by Asuka joining them in unholy matrimony, with the potential of Urd. It was going to be a wedding nobody expected, or would forget.

X- And into next arc! –X

Author notes

Yeah this was a smaller arc, but I had fun with it. As for the next…it had to happen eventually so why not sooner rather than later.

Well have fun, get some sun, swim, and for you adventurous types go out and talk to members of the opposite sex hoping to score your own significant other (or same sex if that's your way)

Ja Mata

Zentrodie


	46. Dreams or revelations?

Standard Disclaimer

Well summer is about ½ over already and I haven't swam nearly enough! Oh well just have to keep at it.

X-X

What We Make of it

Chapter 46 – Marriage is bad

Or

Premonitions are for sissies

He could smell the smoke and dust coming from the destroyed wall. The stench of sulfur permeated his senses, and his vision had a red tint to it as the blood from the cut on his forehead seeped into his eyes. This was not what Shinji expected his wedding day to be like, not by a long shot. It had taken an extra week to prepare since the day his mother told him about it, a full month since Misaki brought the idea to the table.

Nobody expected what happened, who would have believed the happiest day of many young peoples lives would be the focal point for an all out assault. Hild didn't, Shinji noticed, as his mother lay unconscious underneath her destroyed pew. He was sure it was shock, nothing earthly could kill or even seriously hurt his mother, so that was a relief. But under the wooden pew and slabs of metal from the ceiling she lay.

"Why are you doing this?" Shinji asked the gunman pointing the rifle at his head. Staring over the sleek muzzle of the gun, Shinji didn't feel fear, he wasn't allowed fear at this moment. Not when so many people he cared about were in harms way. Ducking under a hunk of table, one of the things that burst through the wall had lobbed it at Kos-Mos yet it almost struck him. "What purpose does any of this serve?" Shinji screamed.

The gunman just shrugged, the barrel of the riffle bounced around as the man put the red dot back on Shinji's head. "Because I don't think you deserve this, you don't deserve any of this!" the crazed man cackled and fired a wild shot over Shinji's shoulder. With all the commotion and general combat at the back of the makeshift church it didn't even register with those that would have come to Shinji's aid.

Morrigan fought a trio of man-mad genetic monstrosities, using a forth as a weapon against the others. They were hulking muscular freaks with barely distinguishable human faces, clad in thick leather tunics. Her body was covered with sweat and blood, most of it the creatures, but they did score a hit now and then and it wasn't play fighting.

Pushed back to back, Kos-Mos and Misaki were holding the bulk of the hybrid army at bay. Their combined strength capable of lifting the Geo-Front out of the ground was just enough to keep the majority of the monsters away from the other guests. Kos-Mos's blue eyes burned brightly as she fired shot after shot at the creatures, yet they never stayed down long. Singed and destroyed limbs came back again and again due to whatever accursed means brought them to life. Misaki could be seen in her torn gown throwing creature after creature back into the halls, it seemed limitless their numbers.

Random shots were fired again and again from the assembled guards, Misato and Attim at the front with assault rifles just like the one pointed at Shinji's head. Neither knew that Shinji's slew of bodyguards were all busy protecting other guests or civilians, they all assumed somebody else wanted the glory points and possibly the fifth wedding ring of the day.

From his place at the front of the alter, Shinji saw it all as he cradled Sasami in his arms. She was bleeding from a sudden blow to the head with a blackjack, the start of the insanity. He saw all his friends and new family being attacked and fighting for their lives, or hiding behind those that could protect them. All because of him, and the madman. "You can't hope to escape this, why not surrender now and we can stop this bloodshed!" Shinji pleaded as he caught sight of a familiar mop of blue hair moving through the throngs of people towards him. His heart lurched.

Firing another shot, this one buried in the ground at Shinji's feet, the gunman just laughed. "Who said anything about escaping? If I go down, everybody goes down with me! So you can let me kill you, and maybe I'll spare a few of these insipid bastards," his tongue lolled out of his mouth as drool careened down his chin. His eyes danced about madly and wildly as he swung the gun. "So, do you want to die, boy?" he giggled a little as he watched his pray lay the damaged princess on the ground.

"Man and wife," Shinji finished what the priest had almost said and kissed Sasami's unconscious lips. Crossing her arms, Shinji stood proudly and defensively over his new bride. "I don't want to die. Not now after I found out so much, after I met all these wonderful people. But I won't let you hurt them! They deserve better than this!" he screamed, hoping to keep the gunman's attention as Rei crept in closer…and closer.

Catching his target's unknown eye movements, the gunman laughed aloud. "Oh, I wonder what is coming up behind me? Maybe it's my first kill of the day!" he almost sang. Grabbing the grip with his hand, the man winked once at Shinji, "Maybe I'll hurt you more to see them die before I kill you. I think I'd like that, to see you hurt and broken," he giggled again.

His body froze as he watched in slow motion as the gunman moved to turn. He saw Rei start running only to fall down as the gunman turned his sights on her, the maid of honor dress to frilly to allow good movement. Shinji started running, Rei was at an angle from the gunman, he'd never make it to her or him in time to prevent the shot.

No…no time to prevent it, but he could prevent the damage from occurring to her. It was fitting he thought with perfect clarity as he ran full tilt to the air between Rei and the gunman. _She was the first girl I met in this town, the first girl I think I fell for…fitting that it end this way. _Diving outward, the muscles in his legs aching under the pressure from all the movement, Shinji felt a strong wind hit him and carry him rolling across the ground.

Staring up at the ceiling, for a moment he thought it missed him. The man had fired and missed, he certainly didn't feel any pain. But when his hand moved to his chest, the wetness that covered it was unmistakable. "R-R-Rei…o…o…ok?" he gibbered as watched the girl crawl on her hands and knees towards him. Sparing a fleeting glance at the gunman, Shinji saw two forms descend upon the man with lighting fast speed, one was blue and white the other was nearly pitch black and both were screaming so loud he couldn't tell what it meant.

Shinji felt Rei putting her hands on what he guessed was the wound. She was safe though, everybody was safe now, except for him. He wanted to speak, tell Rei to stop that silly crying, she was to pretty to cry. But his body didn't work anymore, his vision was fading. He saw more and more people standing around him, many looked sick, a lot were crying. But he couldn't do anything, the battle was still raging, he had work to do…he couldn't die yet! He had to save them!

But it was getting dark…darker…he was tired…oh so tired…then whiteness took him.

Then he sat up in his bed screaming, scared the hell out of Aoi that's for damn sure. What a silly dream, he wasn't getting married for another year yet.

X- Foreshadow or me pulling your leg…time will tell –X

With Urd to his left and Hild to his right, Shinji had a nagging feeling he wasn't going to like the impromptu meeting Misaki called. "What is this all about mom, I-I have homework to do, and I'm sure Urd-neesan has things she needs to do," Shinji complained. It didn't help much that Sasami sat next to her mother with an equally confused expression. Asuka…well Asuka refused to acknowledge Naga sitting to her side, so Shinji tried not to rock that apple cart.

"What's a matter Shin-chan, don't want to spend time with your sister or something?" Urd teased and roped an arm around the boy's neck. Pulling the warm body closer, in more than an innocent embrace, Urd pressed her adopted brother's face against her nearly exposed flesh. "I have nothing going on, and it's a treat to watch Red over there sweat bullets," Urd gestured to the scowling demonic princess.

Rubbing her adorable daughters head, Naga added napalm to the flame. "You can't blame her, Asuka-chan has always been trying to surpass my beauty. I told her not to worry that in time she might grow…or we can use magic. But you see…" Naga just shrugged as her daughter threw a punch and missed the ebony tressed beauty. "As for you three, four counting you Urd-chan, have been called here is rather exciting," Naga couldn't wait to be mother of the co-ruler of the mortal realm.

Worried eyes cast on her son, Hild kept a hand over her mouth to mask her frown. "Is something wrong, honey? You've been looking really pale today, Katsuragi didn't do something to you last night you weren't ready for did she?" Hild asked putting her other palm on her boy's forehead. Cool as a cucumber, but Hild left it their just a moment longer. "I told her that Aoi is way to innocent to try anything yet, and Morrigan is forbidden to make the first move, but Katsuragi…" Hild trailed off with a hint of wonder interlaced with concern.

"Just a really vivid bad dream last night is all," Shinji confessed with a blush. He was a teenager now damn it! He wasn't supposed to let a little thing like a dream make him lose focus and worry. All day at school that stupid dream played out before him time and time again, making for a lot of concerned looking women. "The only thing Misato did today was offer to…wash my back. I declined," Shinji now blushed for a different reason.

Giggling and pawing at her soon to be son-in-law, Misaki's smile was as bright as ever. "Oh dreams are nothing to worry about, Shinji. And I think a little skinship with Katsuragi shouldn't be put off. She's a darling woman, and you two look cute together. And washing your back is so hard…maybe you'd like to wash mine for me?" she asked innocently enough to make most in the room doubt if she was joking.

"MOTHER!" Sasami scolded, then upon seeing Misaki's retaliatory glare, "Mommy! Please stop teasing Shinji alright?" Pouting fiercely as Ryo-oki curled up in her lap, Sasami had an inkling as to what Misaki was going to do. Countless bridal magazines littered the ship and Washu's lab to indicate Misaki's one track mine was running its course. "And, Shinji, I think you should tell me about this dream. Dreams sometimes are prophetic," Sasami intoned with a look that mirrored her own experiences.

Before Shinji could even hint at what he dreamt, Misaki did drop the ball and it exploded as if it were Ryoko and Ayeka fighting over a gift wrapped Tenchi. "Since I'm on earth, I figured why not get you two married before I head back. It would be silly to travel back to Jurai, wait a week, and travel back for it. So in about three weeks you'll tie the knot" Misaki sagely kept her hand on Sasami's shoulder to keep the girl from flying out of her seat.

"HE'S MINE!" Asuka roared the millisecond Misaki's words registered in the infernal pit of a brain she had. "I will not sit here and let some meat sack take MY vassal while I can still destroy a planet!" Asuka's flame breath accentuated her point sulfurously. Stomping her foot on Hild's steel reinforced den floor, the building shook. "Mother, how can you just sit here while those hippies try and due this?" she turned for the first time to her mother. Even princess of hell needed their mother's in times of great hardship and disbelief.

Pulling Asuka's arm down, forcing the girl to sit, Naga's wicked expression softened to a paternal glow. It wasn't everyday Asuka spoke to her, it was rarer still when the girl said the 'M' word. "It's simply Asuka-hun, you're getting married to him right afterward. Since Shinji will be marring into the royal house, he has to marry Sasami first, but then he'll marry you. So you get your cake…and if you're fast enough you can eat it first," Naga gave Shinji a sultry look that would have caused a dead man to stand at attention.

"I…I…Marrying!" Asuka's eyes exploded open and wondrous horrors spread out and devoured all none-essential light. "THANK YOU MOM!" Asuka astounded everybody present by proving she wasn't upset at all, but so joyous she wanted to eat a kitten. Hugging Naga, Asuka even ignored the fact she was kept a good half-foot away thanks to her mother's massive breasts. "And you can expect that he's mine well before she even realizes," Asuka just nuzzled contently as the rest of the room recovered.

Scratching at her head, Urd was confused. "So I take it I'm here so you can ask me to be a bride's maid or something?" she turned to Misaki with a worried tick on her face. Despite her best efforts, Urd couldn't stop the occasional tickle of her brother at her side. She wanted him to react the way he did, he'd fight back a laugh and try and move away his exposed waist. That resulted in his head bouncing lightly off her shoulder. "Because I don't know what other reason you called for me," Urd's head almost turned to Hild but the strain lines on her neck proved too great.

"You'll be marrying him third, if both of you wish it. I have already received clearance from the Yggsdrasil," Hild announced to her children. "As both of you are of different species, the heaven's had no issue with the pairing, and as Hell doesn't mind since you're not blood relation its fine," her hand was firmly on Shinji's arm, judging his reaction from the blood flowing through his arms. It was confusing, it wasn't in favor or against it.

"WHAT!" Urd shouted getting out of her seat and staring down both Shinji and Hild. "Look, I'll admit that when I first met him I wanted him to hit if off with Skuld. I'll even go so far as to say by the time Bell and Keiichi got married I was a little smitten too. But…after you adopted him and we spent time together…I…I…I can't do it!" Urd cried and dove into the television and out of the room.

Pulling Shinji into an impromptu hug herself, Hild's eye released a single tear. "She's just overwhelmed right now, give her time to think about it. But what say you, Shinji. If Urd does come back and agree, would you take her as a wife?" Hild pushed her boy away to get a clear look at his face. She knew she liked his answer from his aura that she felt flowing over her.

"If…if she wants to…I don't know why you set it up…but you have your reasons. Urd is…I don't know her very well, but I know that I feel something," Shinji confessed. Urd was a lovely person, funny, charming, he'd even go so far as say sexy. But he'd never force the issue. He didn't know her well enough to do that, but he trusted Hild with his life, both physical and social so his mother had to have a good reason for it. "S-Sasami…what do you have to say about this? I'm a little overwhelmed by the suddenness of…all of this," taking a glance at Asuka, Shinji had no reason to doubt she wanted the social pairing.

Her stoic features, betrayed nothing of her inner feelings. Sasami had always known that when she was to marry it wouldn't be a one to one pairing. It was custom to have more than two in a royal couple. Asuka and Urd weren't bad people, far from it, even if Asuka did threaten to lay waste to countries and species. Shinji was more than anything she'd thought she'd find in a mate. He wasn't the fat, old, or perverted prince types she was shown before the official statement was given.

Was she happy about this?

Sasami got to her feet and walked over to Shinji, the man she was to marry in less than a month. "Ikari-kun, you ask me how I feel knowing that I will have to share you with that…that…THING, and maybe your half-sister?" her tone was cold as a winter river. Bending at the knees, she pulled Shinji in closer to her, "You wish to know how the year of waiting had been shorn by eleven months makes me feel?" she dropped her volume to a low timber.

A moment later, Shinji's quivering body was drawing against Sasami's in a hug that Misaki would have been damn proud of. Then she followed it with a kiss that would have made Morrigan sweat. Breaking off, Shinji a pile a mush in her arms, "I'm not going to let Asuka beat me, that's all I'll say," she didn't need to say anymore.

Standing up, the trio of mother's shook hands, as Asuka moved to pry Sasami off the befuddled Shinji. It was an agreement. The daughters accepted the son, and the son accepted the daughters, Urd was still being held in abstention.

X- Marrying your half-sister can't be THAT easy –X

Her target was sighted and totally unaware of her presence, not surprising due to the gargantuan size of the bath. Roughly the size of a paid gym's spa, Hild apparently loved taking bath's so much she had the most lavish thing created for her family and her. Misato didn't mind, she got to take her baths here too, and it was the epitome of pampering. Getting down on her hands and knees, Misato crawled towards her pray, the feline strikes without warning.

Closer…closer…closer! Standing just behind him, Misato watched the boy languish scrub his arms with a sponge and sigh. _Hild was right, something is bothering him. _No matter, Misato was an expert and destroying bad moods, when they weren't hers. With the speed of an ace pitcher, Misato's fingers danced up and down Shinji's sides. His jumping almost sent him backward and toppling into her, but she kept him on the stool. "You're getting to easy, Shin-chan. Attim would be upset you get caught so easy," Misato joked as she continued her tickling assault.

Through his gales of laughter Shinji managed to get out, "S-s-top Misato-san! I can't-can't breathe!" He turned partway towards the assailant and batted weakly at her arms to stop her attack. Their laughter echoed in the bath, magnified by the moister in the air and lack of other objects to stop the sound. Once he successfully grabbed Misato's wrists, Shinji sighed on more time, "Misato-san that was mean."

Keeping Shinji's head pointed away from her, it was more fun to tease him with the idea she was nude, Misato wrapped her arms around his waist and rested her head on his shoulder. "I had to do something to get that gloomy look off your face, you're not as cute when you're upset," Misato rubbed her head against Shinji's. She could feel him stiffen and go ridged as she held him closer. "Something wrong, Shin-chan?" she teased.

"Y-you're not…naked are you?" Shinji sniffed back hard hoping he wasn't right. His neck was ropy muscles that refused to move, the warmth of Misato's body didn't register as his body was chilled. "And I'm not gloomy, I'm just thinking is all," he lied poorly.

Moving back a scant few inches, the gap between them the length of Misato's pinky, the woman murmured. "So you always scrub your arms for five minutes and stare blankly off into space when you take a bath. And here I thought Ayanami was the queen of boring," she swatted Shinji's back playfully. She had to find out what was bothering him, it was her job and her personally desire to keep him happy. "Tell me what is really wrong, Shinji, it's what I'm here for, why I WANT to be here," she insisted on reminding him that she was there by choice.

With mechanical motions, Shinji's body revolved and pivoted with the utmost reluctance. Peeking through one half closed eye, Shinji saw Misato in a daring bikini, but clothed none the less. The red triangle's covered the vital bits and little else. "You tease to hard sometimes, Misato-san," he chided yet despite himself couldn't have looked more relieved.

"Urd and Morrigan can't have all the fun," Misato stuck her thumb to the clef of her chin and posed. He reacted as she hoped and shyly adjusted his waist to hid a little something he probably wanted hidden. "So are you going to tell me what's up, or am I going to have to throw you in that pool your mother calls a bath and scrub it out of you?" she flexed her fingers threateningly and inched closer.

Eyes going hazy, Shinji gazed over the steamy bath at the porcelain Greek statues on the other side of the room. "Just thinking about that dream I had, and the whole marriage thing," worry pervaded every word. Setting his hands together on the towel he kept around his waist, Shinji reclined back into Misato's waiting embrace. His eyes closed, he inhaled the deep watery stench. "The dream was just stupid, but…the wedding is all to real," he said without a hint of emotion.

"You're not ready for it? Don't like your soon to be brides, or is it something else?" Misato loved these moments. Shinji cradled in her arms leaning against him, not like a mother and son, but a man and woman. "I know you love Sasami and Asuka, or things wouldn't have gotten this far. You're to soft to let them marry you and enter a loveless marriage," she rested her head on his shoulder again, his wet hair mingled with hers.

Murmuring out a negative sound, Shinji yawned loudly. It was well into the night, supper was prepared by Tira and Chocolate as Hild left for a meeting, and Shinji had hardly tasted it. "For one I'm not afraid of it, and you're right I do care for them deeply," Shinji wouldn't lie about that. Sliding down further, unintentionally resting his head against Misato's cushions.

Blushing as sensations she hadn't touch but sought from this man were bestowed upon her, Misato blinked rapidly. "So it's not one or two, which means it's three," she readjusted her hands to accommodate Shinji's slide. "If I know you, I'm going to say you feel bad FOR them because of this whole mixed marriage thing. I'd go so far as to think you're go so far as to ask them why they'd agree to it," Misato plopped her head on top of Shinji's head.

Squeaking out a startled yelp, Shinji answered without words. "Its wrong isn't it? I mean…marriage on earth is one man and one woman. But here I might be marrying three women. How can they agree to it? Isn't it like I'd be cheating on them…" Shinji's tone denoted he was hiding something else, something he pleaded he could keep secret.

Misato was no fool, knew Shinji well enough to tell everything he hoped nobody would just by how his toes clenched. "You know…don't you," Misato's flat tone was not ambiguous on purpose. "You knew those other girls like you, some even love you, and yet all this time you've pretended to be oblivious to it," Misato's fingers tightened and she felt Shinji testing his limits of escape. "I've got you, Shin-chan, and I'm not letting go until you either tell me or agree to wash my front and back thoroughly," she pulled on him to emphasize.

His head dipped, and he nodded once slowly. "It was so strange and unexpected I didn't want to believe it. First it was Kos-Mos, I felt sorry for her because she was programmed to love me. But after she got her program upgrade and STILL did, that was the turning point. By then a lot of people were around. Attim, Rei, Asuka, Sasami, and…" Shinji trailed off. Grinding his teeth he forced himself to continue, "Anyway, I thought at first it was male ego, I mean it would be pompous to actually BELIEVE these girls loved me as I felt for them," or at least he thought he loved them.

He didn't say her name…but Misato could tell that pause was reserved for her. Smiling, she kissed the top of his head, his hair wasn't to tasty but she didn't care. _He's embarrassed to say it in front of me. I could just eat him up, if I didn't want his first time to be with one of his wives. _Pulling Shinji up higher, only slightly grinding him against herself for maximum pleasure. "But it isn't ego, Shinji. It isn't some hallucination or trick. And that list is a lot longer than even you want to believe. Morrigan, Shion, and I'm betting a lot of girls from your school are smitten with you. So why hide from it?" she asked.

"Because what if they resent it later? What if after a few years of what Misaki said they start to regret it, or start to hate me for what I've forced on them? It was easier to think that nobody cared so I wouldn't have to live with the guilt of the pain I could cause," Shinji sniffed hard. Trebling in Misato's embrace, he feared not for himself but for what he could do to harm.

Holding him gently, Misato tittered at his words. "Boy you are TOO selfless. Any other man would kill you, skin you, and wear it as a disguise to get what you have. You have nothing to worry about. Think of it this way, humans normally get married for fifty or so years if they're lucky. You'll, we'll, be living for tens of thousands of years…if you spent fifty years with each wife you will have at the end of the month you only have oh…tens of thousands of years to spoil the others! And they'll have just as long to enjoy life in whatever form they want!" Misato released her boy and turned him to face her.

Red eyed, Shinji was smiling brighter than he had ever smiled before. He couldn't contain himself, she had said exactly what he needed to hear. Leaning in softly, chastely, his eyes closed as he hoped he wasn't overstepping his bounds.

Watching the show, Misato almost pushed him away just to tease him. But, overcome with her own emotions, the concubine that would be known as wife, embraced her man…and after a heavy kissing session of over ten minutes finally forced him to let her wash his back…then she had him wash hers and it was well worth the wait.

X- Yah sappy…but such are weddings –X

The full moon hid behind large clouds as the wind whipped madly across the city overturning garbage cans and blowing papers everywhere. Morrigan felt right at home at the witching hour as she summoned the first of the males she needed. The humidity was rising, promising a storm later in the night, but for now her head wings did a wonderful job keeping her cool. "Now come to me little boys, you have a duty to perform," the succubus cooed to the approaching bodies.

His face was that of somebody in deep sleep, but his legs walked awkwardly towards the siren call. Touji was having a very strange dream by the facial twitches and scowling, that or walking barefoot across he city on broken slabs of concrete wasn't doing his feet any good.

Kensuke faired even worse, as he walked topless and in shorts that were not socially acceptable. His eyes were half open, but to anybody observing him he saw nothing as he walked. Bouncing off Touji as he came to the alley that had summoned him, Kensuke actually blinked rapidly as consciousness returned to him. "What the hell? Where am I? Touji?" he fired off hastily and grabbed the other boy by the shoulders.

"Go away dad, I'm still tired," Touji muttered as his head was thrashed back and forth. After a half hearted slap, his eyes opened wide and retaliated. Once realization dawned on him, Touji frantically looked around his new environment of a back alley. "What the hell is going? Kensuke what did you do?" he asked as a cat yowled and ran past them.

Her heels clacked against the dry yet cracked ground, "Well two out of three isn't bad. The third must not be sleeping yet." Morrigan closed her eyes and concentrated on the missing third of the triad. She could sense the man, he was close, but he wasn't asleep. "You two keep quiet a moment, I've a wayward husband to find," she blew a kiss to the stunned males. She let them gawk at her form, her uniform was well tailored for alluring susceptible humans.

"No need for that, I'm here," Keiichi Morisato announced walking down the corner with his helmet in hand. "Had to find a good place to park the bike," he yawned but his smile was contradictory. "So what do we own Shinji's confidant on this late night visit?" the man that became as close as a brother to Shinji asked stuffing his hands in his pockets.

Swishing her hair over her shoulder, Morrigan smiled sultry at the new addition. "So it is true, the mortal that wed a goddess is now her love slave," Morrigan could smell the reek of post coital emissions pouring off the man. It had been so long since she had a go, but she no longer desired a quick fling with a stupid man whose soul she dined on after. No, Morrigan was a one man succubus now, she just had to wait for her time. "And you owe the honor of my presence to an acquaintance of yours, Shinji Ikari," she informed.

Covering his bare chest with his hands, Kensuke was the only one to appear cold on the humid night. "What does Shinji have to do with us being drug out in the middle of the night to some dark alley? You didn't kill him did you?" Kensuke's throat clenched at the idea of losing a friend and the most unlikely winner of the bet being chosen, nobody.

Smacking Kensuke on the back of the head, Touji grunted and rolled his eyes. "If she killed him why and how did she bring us here, idiot?" he turned to Morrigan and bowed…stealing a peek at her supple flesh. "Sorry about him, but seriously you didn't do something to him did you?" even his voice hinted at a great anxiety.

Hopping off the ground, her large bat wings splintered into a myriad of bats upon which she sat. "Shin-baby is fine, likely still having a heart to heart with Katsuragi," Morrigan's eye twitched ever so slightly. Misato had gotten lucky, Morrigan thought, and said exactly the right thing when Shinji was most nervous and scored insane points. Anybody that got Shinji to kiss THEM was insanely lucky, and Morrigan didn't think Misato deserved it. "As you might not know, Shin-baby is getting married," she said shaking her head of her angry thoughts of Misato.

Leaning against a wall, Keiichi wrinkled his nose as a foul odor wafted into his nose. "Yeah to that Sasami girl, in about a year or so right?" Keiichi's eyebrow rose questioningly. The passing lights of a car illuminated the quartet, and Keiichi almost laughed at the odd assembly of people. "But with Urd holding up in her room after the little family meeting today, I'm betting something different is afoot," he pulled his right hand out and ran his finger under his nose scratching an itch.

"I thought Asuka said she owned him…or was owned by him…I don't know she scares the hell out of me so I don't pay much attention," Touji babbled. Spending half his time not trying to stare at the gift genetics gave Kensuke and Morrigan's demonic chest, Touji wasn't having a good time concentrating. "And I swear half the girls at school are either interested in him or something," he didn't try to sound jealous he just did.

Crisscrossing her legs, Morrigan batted her eyes at Touji just to make him fidget more. "Sorry Suzuhara-kun, I've pledged myself into service to Shin-baby for freeing me from never-ending darkness. But it's nice to make a woman feel appreciated," she flapped her head wings jovially. "As for the wedding, it's been moved to three weeks from now. I'm looking for some groomsmen and you three are Shin-baby's closest male friends so you're on the list," she hoped off her bed of bats and they reformed into her wings.

"Who's the best man going to be?" Keiichi looked a might anxious. Taking a step closer to Morrigan, the man stepped between her and the other boys. "I mean after Urd and he became half siblings we've gotten really close. I'd be honored to be the best man," he moved to put a hand on Morrigan's shoulder, not out of lust but anxiety.

Stepping away from the man, "Back off goddess sponge," Morrigan held her hands up hoping to prevent any contact with the man. It wasn't that Morrigan thought Keiichi was dirty for his none-stop lovemaking with Belldandy, it was she was afraid Belldandy might have some lingering presence on him. _Last thing I need is for her to teleport here and think I'm trying to steal him. She'd blast this whole city away before I could stop her. _Walking towards the mouth of the alley, "As for the best man, its not decided yet. Why don't you three chose. Oh and the bachelor party better be something magnificent or I'll see to it that none of you sleep well again," she threatened.

"Sleep isn't a place of salvation for me anymore, not since Urd planted that damn seed in Bell's head that she can do what she wants to me while I sleep," Keiichi moaned as he put his hands back in his pockets and started following Morrigan. The wind was picking up and he pulled his collar tighter. A few sparse raindrops hit his face, but it was still to early to worry about a deluge.

Jumping into the air, flying a good thirty feet away, "Whatever, just remember make it grand and Hild will reimburse you for the costs. Let the battle for best man begin!" she cheered and flew off into the night. Shinji was going to have the best damn pre-game show even if she had to play the part of dancer for him. _Those boys better not let me or him down or they'll regret it! _

Back on the street, Touji and Kensuke pleaded with Keiichi to give them rides home on his bike. The threat of rain was growing, and they didn't want to get caught in it.

X- Morrigan at a bachelor party…they would be no wedding –X

Staring out the window as it vibrated against the pane due to the raging storm, Aoi leaned her head back and watched the flickering light. "I wouldn't have believed it, but I'm already upset that I won't get to fulfill my job tonight," she pouted cutely. Moving from the window to one of the couches in the training room, it was an oversized brown suede feature that oozed with comfort, she fell into it with a titter. "But I guess that is rude, as you've never gotten the chance yet either," she patted the newest addition to the teams shoulder.

Attim rolled her eyes and tried her best to appear civil. All Aoi did since Shinji announced after his bath that Misato and he were going to watch some movies, aka leave him alone, was mope. She had been working for Hild for a grand total of one day, and she was appalled by Morrigan's training schedule and itinerary. Learning to dance was one thing, but the extra dance steps meant to entice and seduce were…well she didn't know WHY she needed to learn them. To make matters worse was how her partner, Aoi, was being corrupted before her eyes into not only wanting to be lewd but LOVING the idea of it.

Tugging on the French maid outfit Morrigan forced her to wear for the first week of training, Attim was far from happy. "As Shinji's guard, I don't see why I have to be debased and humiliated like this. And no I don't mind not being a damn bed warmer, it's degrading!" Attim wanted to do it sure, but she'd never admit to it to anybody other than Shinji. "And I suggest you get used to the idea of NOT sleeping in his bed, since I doubt his wife…wives will enjoy the company," Attim wasn't jealous of Sasami and Asuka…no…she was beyond jealous.

"Your attempt at lying is noted in my record, M-Zack," Kos-Mos drooled out in a monotone voice. Hacking into the houses computer system, oddly enough the demonic system was compatible with Kos-Mos's system. "And need I remind you that I am Shinji's personal defender, you are only the work appointed one," she sat down next to Aoi and took joy as the girl cringed away. "Does my form not appeal to you Sakuraba?" she glared at the newest addition.

Her kimono pulled on tight, Aoi felt uncomfortable under the gazes of both of the other women she shared a job with. "I was just thinking…how could you ever actually please Shinji-sama? I mean your body is so…it's not real…do you even have a…" Aoi tried to remember Morrigan's lessons on dirty talk but it was her worst subject. She enjoyed the dancing, seducing tactics, sleeping in Shinji's bed, but for some reason saying dirty words was still to hard for her.

Kicking her feet up on top of the coffee table in front of the couch, Attim let her eyes waft up to the mirrored ceiling. Stupid lucky spoiled bitch got to have all the breaks and all Attim got was to watch the video feed. No matter, at least she had that, and many others didn't even get that smidgen of relief. "If she doesn't I'm sure her maker is willing to install one for the fee of being allowed a go. I mean Kos-Mos WAS created for the sole purpose of finding Uzuki a husband," Attim and Kos-Mos had a strange friendship.

Leaning over Aoi, glaring at Attim, Kos-Mos stopped registering Aoi's existence. "For your information, M-Zack, most of my parts are augmented human parts. I have everything you have, only better," she hoisted her metal bikini clad chest to emphasize her point. "A plus for my side is that Shinji won't have to worry about his partner phasing through reality and falling through the floor!" she pointed a dainty metal covered finger at her sparing partner.

"He'll just have to get tetanus shots is all, or have a steel condom to make sure it doesn't get stuck in a gear," Attim said in response. Also leaning dangerously over Aoi, now face to face with that damn harpy of a robotic maid, Attim was smiling despite herself. Life was more fun when you had somebody that made your blood boil. Shinji made it boil with love and excitement, and Kos-Mos made it boil with rage and contempt. Yet she still liked the infernal contraption. "And since I know you're doing it, what IS Katsuragi doing to Shinji right now?" Attim asked putting a hand between Aoi's legs as she better positioned herself for a sudden strike to Kos-Mos's head.

Blushing bright red, Aoi was misreading the scene totally. "Y-you two are…are…lovers? I thought you cared for Shinji-sama…oh this is wonderful I wont' have to share!" her tone was idiotically happy. Crushing herself against the couch to avoid the torso's of the other concubines, Aoi went to cover her eyes to give the two privacy if they wanted to take things beyond the verbal foreplay. The innocent flower of the Sakuraba clan was taking to amorality like a fish to water.

"WHAT THE HELL DID YOU SAY?" Attim and Kos-Mos screamed at varying degrees of volume. Pulling back as if the other was on fire, both women toppled over their respected armrests and fell to the floor. Kos-Mos was first to get up, hydrolics in the legs did help a lot, and flexed her R-scythe at the insufferable wench. "I would never allow that tramp to touch me outside of a training spar! As for Master, Katsuragi is forcing him to watch some chick flick and snuggling against him on the couch. They will likely sleep there…lucky bi…" Kos-Mos smacked her cheeks to stop herself from talking.

Slowly phasing through the ground, "Think I'll keep an eye on them. Hild mentioned he was worried about something today, and I wouldn't want Misato to take advantage of that unknowingly." Like hell Misato wouldn't try something, Attim thought. Misato had almost been dancing after the bath, and gloating about it as Shinji prepped for bed to her. It was time to cool Misato's heels, and maybe watch a movie. "You keep the toy company," she said not really making it clear who was the toy and who the keeper.

X- People take Marriage announcements differently –X

Author notes

Going to take this slow. This is a big event in this story, and I won't be rushing it. Hope ya enjoy it despite the more serious tone.

Ja mata

Zentrodie


	47. Planning is half the fun or its insanity

Standard disclaimer

Finally got the internet working again. Sorry for the delay on this chapter but I had a busy week that kept me away from the keyboard. Oh and on a side note I freaking hate the ending of StarCraft 2, rage inducing ending. Hope things are going well for everybody. Enjoy the ending summer everybody, SWIM SWIM SWIM!

X-X

What We Make of It

Chapter 47 – Lots of Worries

Or

How to marry many women and not look like an ass

Sneaking down the hallway of the shrine, Keiichi swallowed deeply. He had t be stealthy like a ninja, keep his mind as chaste as freshly fallen snow, and make no sound what so ever. _Must not wake Belldandy, Must NOT wake Belldandy. _His mind continued to repeat its mantra as he found his way to Urd's door. He had lost a full week to those other boys in earning the highly coveted best man spot, stupid work.

He couldn't blame his wife for the nightly delays, Belldandy was just a very loving woman…to loving…oh dear GOD he wished she wasn't so loving at times. But with the wedding in only two weeks, he had to do something extra special to get the title he wanted. That's when he was struck by divine inspiration…well Belldandy did inspire the idea after round three the night before.

If Keiichi could come up with the best idea for the bachelor's party, he could use that as a reason to be best man. It wasn't that Shinji was favoring anybody above any other, so he couldn't use 'family' as a reason for the title, he had to do something else. "And Morrigan did say it had to be something special…" he nodded to himself and lightly rapped on Urd's door. Whispering, "Urd are you in there?"

Opening her door, Urd's eyebrow twitched in the morning light as she glared down at the man. "You have two seconds to explain why I shouldn't blast you for waking me up this early. It's five a.m. for Father's sake!" Urd's angry words matched her disposition. Her hair was frumpy, eyes had bags under them, and her body just didn't have the same zest for life that it typically did.

Still in tones almost to soft to hear, "Sssssh! You'll wake up Bell! Now if you want to explain to her why I'm talking to you first thing in the morning rather than um…anyway I don't want to wake her." Keiichi, for all the thin walls in the shrine, still didn't want Belldandy's sisters to know too much about the marital bliss. Plus telling Urd that Belldandy wanted him to take advantage of sleeping bodies as she was didn't sit right with the man.

Eyes closed, Urd yawned loudly as she grabbed Keiichi's shoulder and pulled him into her room. Shutting the door, she leaned against the oh to thin divider, "Speak but use small words as my brain isn't up to speed right now. Oh and watch the bottles, I've been drinking a bit lately," she eyed the dozens of bottles on the ground. Grabbing the nearest one that still had some contents, Urd drew it to her lips and sloshed it down.

Nearly gagging, Keiichi could hardly tolerate the smell. It was beyond a brewery at this point, but he'd get to that little bit of info later. "First off sorry about waking you, and sorry I haven't had time to chat in the last week. I know you know that Shinji-kun is getting married soon so that's why I'm here right now," he found a clean spot on the ground and plopped down onto it. It was an issue of family pride, Keiichi just couldn't let those boys beat him.

Urd's eyes widened a little and the bottle inched up higher letting more drink flow out faster. After draining the last of the liquid stupidity, Urd tossed the bottle down with the others. "Yeah I know my little brother is getting married. I was there when that crazed woman announced the changed date," Urd shuddered and her fingers went to her biceps and clutched. "What does this have to do with us though…you're not going to try and convince me are you?" she leaned over and blew heavily in Keiichi's face.

Eyes watering at the fragrant bouquet of smell assaulting his senses, Keiichi felt buzzed from the stench. "Convince you? No, I'm trying to get the best man spot, and I think I have a good idea how. That woman that's always with him, Morrigan, said that whoever gets picked has to have a really good plan for the bachelors party. And I thought 'who better to plan or even participate than Urd!' so I thought I'd ask you," he bashfully stole a glimpse of the face that had bewitched him a time or two in the past.

Falling down heavily, several bottles fell from their perches with glorious smashes, Urd face planted. Rolling to her back, the Goddess of the Past burst into a fit of drunken laughter. "Oh this is rich!" she bellowed and wiped a tear from her eye. "You want me to help you plan how to best plan my half-brother's bachelor party! Should I strip at it for him? Make him lust after me? What about this…how about I make him love me like one of his other soon-to-be brides?" her body continued to pulsate with laughter.

Only it didn't sound like she was finding anything humorous.

His head frantically going from the bizarre show Urd was putting on and the door, Keiichi could sense Belldandy waking. "Urd keep it down or you'll wake Bell and Skuld! And I guess you're right it was a bit insensitive of me to ask that," he tried calming down the still laughing woman. Something was wrong though, Keiichi was smart enough to see that. Urd appeared to love teasing Shinji, just as she had loved teasing him before the wedding. Something had changed though, Urd…Urd was scaring him

"Let them wake up! Let them all join in on the big laugh!" Urd roared. Grabbing one of the bottles next to her, she chucked it at the wall with a reverberating clatter. "Let them hear the great joke!" her laughter suddenly stopped. Grabbing a nearby bucket she magically connected it to the toilet and let loose the affects of to much alcohol and to little food. "WAKE-Y WAKE-Y everybody!" she yelled after cleaning up her little mess.

Crawling over to Urd, knocking bottles to the wayside as he went, Keiichi grabbed Urd by the shoulders. "What happened to you Urd? What is bothering you?" Keiichi asked with growing unease. Urd got tripped off by mentioning Shinji and the wedding, how could that happen? Did Shinji do something to her? That timid but likable boy doing anything to cause this type of reaction seemed impossible.

The mania in her eyes shifted once Keiichi's hands touched her. One moment she was laughing like a hyena, the next stillness. Wrapping her arms around the man her sister married, Urd's fingers clawed deeply into his nightshirt. "You don't know what Hild asked me…how could you since Shinji hasn't been here since that day," she muttered and pulled Keiichi closer.

He knew how this game played out, and Keiichi made his peace with it. Belldandy was going to walk in on them, it was a fact, and he'd have to clear it up. But Urd was family, Urd deserved to have her problems listened to. And if that meant he'd have to call in from work to 'show Belldandy how much he was sorry' he'd have to do it. "Let it out Urd, tell me what's got you so flustered?" he gently patted the woman's head supportively.

Gently opening the door, Belldandy walked into the room and shut the door. "Yes, sister, tell us what is wrong?" she added and patted Keiichi's shoulder and offered him her heart warming smile.

Diving from Keiichi's embrace into Belldandy's, Urd sought the same thing all scared and upset people did, a mother figure. "Hild offered to arrange a marriage between Shinji and myself," she said with a hic that threatened a storm of tears. "She said she got permission already…said the heavens didn't mind if I married my half brother…how sick is that?" she buried her head against Belldandy's chest.

While he did feel cast aside as Urd went from him to Belldandy, Keiichi knew why. Belldandy just had a way of making everybody feel comforted and safe. The bombshell however exploded in his head like a nuclear bomb. "Hild wants you to marry Shinji? But he's marrying that Sasami girl…how can he marry you as well?" the implications of marrying a sudden half brother didn't go over Keiichi's head, he just chose easiest thing his head could accept.

Gazing at her husband over her sister's head, Bell answered for the sniffling half-goddess. "Jurai-san is from a polygamous culture, like the heavens and hell, so Shinji-san can have multiple wives, just as Urd can," she gently pushed her sister away to get a good look at her. Dabbing Urd's cheeks with a handkerchief she picked up off the ground she collected a few droplets. "And I believe it's a wonderful thing you've been offered," she nuzzled Urd's nose with her own.

Falling back, more bottles fell and shattered, Keiichi's mind was blown. "Wait…so your both from polygamous cultures? Does that mean that I could…" Keiichi didn't believe it! Not only did Belldandy say Shinji could marry more than one woman, she was advocating Urd join the mix? Added to that HE could marry more than one person to? That wasn't something he thought he could survive through.

"Yes dear I can…and Peorth has been asking me to ask you if you'd mind? As long as you love us both equally…well…me more" Belldandy selfishly stated. Finding Urd looking at her questioningly, borderline disgusted Belldandy's angelic tittered filled the room with an alien quality. "Silly sister, I see you love him, and it would be strange at first I'm sure everything would work out. Maybe we can even get Skuld in too! That way we'd all be one big happy family! Oh…but that mean's he might want to share with me too…only Kei-chan can do that…oh you'll just have to take over if he does want to," Belldandy said plain as day.

Grabbing one of Urd's unfinished bottles, Keiichi proceeded to drain it faster than Urd would have. "I think…I'm going to…rethink my strategy about this best man thing. Bell please take care of Urd alright?" he got to his feet and fled as quickly as possible…but he did hear one last statement as his mind started to cloud over.

It was Urd, the sadness was gone replaced with something akin to hope, "You really think he'd be happy with me?"

X- Belldandy is scary but awesome –X

Life hadn't been roses and wonderful for her lately, but Ritsuko was learning to adapt to her new station in life. Using her one free hand to control her battery operated wheelchair, she rolled into the construction area. "I can't believe you're building a church in the Geo-Front," she half laughed as she came to a stop at Misato's side. "How are you even paying for this…extravagance?" it was insane how much work had been done in one week.

Grabbing a nearby hardhat, Misato fastened it to Ritsuko's head. Sipping on her morning coffee, Misato shrugged. "Hild's got money coming out of the walls so hiring several of the worlds best architects and construction companies is nothing," she watched as several of the more attractive men waved at her. She did not wave back. "And Misaki is overseeing everything so all I have to do is keep Shinji from getting cold feet and running and this will be over in three weeks," she sighed as another lewd comment was fired her way.

"I don't know why we couldn't use my mechs though, they're all safe and tested!" Shion groaned. Watching the construction of the front of the church, she kept her eyes on the mindlessly expensive looking stained glass window. "Just because Nerv has one crazy scientist bent on destroying the world doesn't mean we all are," she kicked her foot as a brutish man called out 'are those real? Let me feel!'

Rotating her chair around to, Ritsuko snorted at seeing Shion wearing a construction outfit, "Almost thought you were a guy for a second Uzuki. And I can hardly say you're not a mad scientist either. You made a robot to find your perfect mate, how is THAT not crazy? But then again you're an engineer, hardly a scientist." It was the pot calling the kettle black, but Ritsuko did love smashing Shion's ego whenever she got the chance. "And I hear the wonderful serenade of the working class hasn't lost its charm," she commented as a large redhead bellowed 'Free the twins! We all wins!'

Gritting her teeth, Misato's bared teeth was a wonderful parody of a smile. "They maybe the fastest and best workers money can buy, but that doesn't mean they're not still men," Misato had a very prominent vein throbbing in her forehead. "Have to admit though," she set her cup down and sighed, "They have gotten better at rhyming their stupid comments."

"FREE LOVE! SHOW US THE MUV!" a particularly needy man yelled as he waited for the plaster to dry.

Turning from the men, Shion took a bite of her lunch, unfortunately it was a hotdog and that never went over well with the crew. "Men will be men, and if we used my builders this wouldn't be happening. Must be nice for you Hannibal, nobody ever says anything about you," Shion smugly rapped on Ritsuko's facemask. "Back to what I was asking before, Katsuragi, how are things going at Casa de' Hild?" she asked while dabbing some of the mustard off her cheek.

Hearing comments about Shion's eating habits, Misato turned a blind eye to it and scratched at her cheek. "That Aoi girl is getting into really kinky territories, found her in Shinji's bed adorned in nothing but two large ribbons. Shin-chan didn't however take her up on the unwrapping, must have been a blow to the girl," Misato's tone didn't denote any sympathy, no she sounded happy.

"I HAVE SOMETHING YOU CAN BLOW!"

"I swear I'm going to kill somebody if this keeps up," Misato's vein continued its merry jig. Drawing her pistol out, Misato chambered a round and set it on the nearby table. "Shin-chan is looking a little nervous, but that's hardly a surprise, he is getting married to two possibly three women with the knowledge that more WILL be coming. Being king of the known universe to boot…I'm going to enjoy my future job," Misato shivered with anticipation.

Ritsuko didn't mind hearing about the oddities in Misato's life, hell Ritsuko was happy for Misato. While she found Shinji to be an admirable pilot, Ritsuko had no romantic plans for the boy, but if Misato did who was she to stand in the way. "Wait, you said three weeks? I thought the wedding was in two? And this whole 'king of the universe' thing will have to wait for the angels to be dealt with you know," but Ritsuko was growing to doubt Nerv's importance.

Her hand clenched her sidearm tighter, but Misato was steadfast to reacting to the men's stupidity. "You didn't hear? The chapel is going to take an extra week to set up. So the wedding is going to be pushed back a week. As for the angels…" Misato's voice trailed off as her head sank.

"Washu took out two more on her own yesterday. She's actively hunting for them now," Shion filled in the gaps. "One was some flying neon sign in space, and other was very akin to a tentacle monster of light. Two intertwining strands of light, looked a lot like a double helix," Shion joined Misato in feeling unneeded.

"I'M A TENTACLE MONSTER!/I COULD STAND FOR SOME INTERTWINING!"

The novelty of the comments was wearing thin, and Ritsuko could see both Shion and Misato ready to blow. "Don't feed the trolls, girls, or they'll keep trying to serenade you into dancing around topless. Though for you Misato that would just be another day at your new side job wouldn't it? Being a concubine, you must feel odd in cloths," it wasn't said cruelly, it was all in good fun. If you can't torment your friends, who can you torment?

"When they're done making this building for Misaki I'm going to take every one of those guys that said something and feed them to Kos-Mos," Misato's sadistic smile was disconcerting on just about every level a human could be. "As for my new job, you're just jealous you don't get to live in a mansion, have every need met, and all I have to do is be with the person I want to be with…and Shion I did see your application. Morrigan is reviewing your request to be Hild's personal 'mechanical specialist'," she spat out.

"SHE'S A SPITTER! HOW GOOD DO YOU SWALLOW?"

Sheepishly, Shion eeped as made a beeline for the exit, "I've a few tests to run on Kos-Mos's new chasse so I'll see you two later. Akagi don't go destroying the planet while I'm gone." And with that the spunky woman ran for her dear life.

"I can't believe it. When that boy showed up we were so worried about the angels, and his ability to keep piloting for us," Ritsuko chuckled. "Now Nerv has no real purpose, mankind knows of the existence of angels, demons, aliens, and that boy is the center of all of it. Think he'll need a biochemist on his staff?" Ritsuko gazed up half joking at Misato.

"I'll ask Hild, but you'll have to vow not to recreate that last little accident you perpetrated. Hild was ready to skin you alive for that," Misato took the handles of Ritsuko's chair and started leading the woman out of the construction area. "And I will not, under no circumstances, let you join in on Shin-chan and my happy fun time," Misato joined Ritsuko in a good laugh as the left to a chorus of 'Look at the backside! Show us the frontside!'

X- Those men are so doomed it isn't funny –X

"Ouch!" Sasami yelped as the tailor accidentally poked her with a needle. The old woman was the best at her craft on Earth, but Sasami had been jabbed twice already. Speed came at a price. Beside the pain of being fitted for a western wedding gown, Sasami's real irritation came from the other party getting the same treatment. "Asuka do you seriously HAVE to use that color for your dress?" the pleading was a high pitched whine that got Shinji to act whenever she used it.

Asuka was not Shinji, because if she was this story would really be strange. Asuka daintily picked at her ear with her pinky. "Sorry your druid-ship, but I happen to enjoy black, so my dress and those of in my party will be the deepest stygian black possible," Asuka's cruel expression shocked the old lady working on her dress, second best in Japan, and earned the demonic princess a stabbing of her own.

Gazing over Asuka's shoulder at the demonic honor guard that was to be Asuka's bride's maids, Sasami was stunned to see Morrigan getting prepped to be Asuka's Maid of Honor. The assembly of demonic forces was making Tsunami uneasy, nature and demons hardly got along well anyway. "Is that Morrigan? How did that happen? I thought you wanted Morrigan dead for what she did to Shinji!" the stunned Goddess of Nature erupted.

"POKE ME AGAIN MEAT SACK AND I'LL BURN YOU TO ASHES!" Asuka yelped as another needle prodded her flawless rump. Rubbing at the wound, the old woman paying her threat no mind, Asuka frowned at Naga who was keeping her in line. "As for Morrigan…" Asuka didn't continue but her face became flustered and red. Her eyes downcast she fumbled with her fingers.

"It's a wedding gift for her hubby, burying the hatchet in the ground and not in the succubus's back," Naga cooed as her daughter flubbed about. "Though after seeing your dress Sasami-chan, I have to admit maybe we were wrong about the black," Naga's head bobbed which made her ample chest wiggle as well. "It's so cute to see my darling lil girl getting over her desire to ravage worlds and getting ready to ravage her young man. I just hope you don't break him to fast," Naga had broken her demonic husband in no less than three days.

"MOM/NAGA-SAN!" Asuka and Sasami chorused at the ideas the White Serpent was perpetuating. That and watching the mass of flesh wobble they both were jealous of didn't help either.

In the back room, Etna was question why she had agreed to be part of Laharl's sister's wedding. The dress wasn't flattering enough, but knowing the demonic chef's were making all manner of sweets, got the young demoness's attention. Flonne's candy filled brain was about to explode with love and flowers at the idea of being in a wedding. The third and final demonic bride's maid was just jealous of everybody being taller than her, but Grenda was happy her sister was getting married…and leaving hell for her to conquer.

Watching the fireworks nearly explode, Sasami was glad it wasn't her ceremony that was going to be ruined by those crazy people. "How are things going for you Ayanami…you don't mind being my maid of honor do you?" Sasami winced as the speedy fitting garnered her yet another prick. Her friendship with Rei had been odd, but the docile yet queer girl was one of her best friends. Eventually it would be co-wife, but for now Sasami was afraid Rei would take offence at being beaten to the wedding pedestal.

Being the only member of Sasami's wedding party, Rei's dress was a step up from the standard lot of marital attire. Powder blue and shoulder-less, the dress had frills out the wazoo, it circled a good half meter around the albino, but it brought out the subtle beauty that the girl was graced with. "You will be mine, so I see no reason to take offense," Rei's simple statement was stated with a small confident smile.

Her mighty ponytails swayed as her head nodded, but Sasami contained the sense of connection that Rei's simple statement conveyed. Yes she would be married to Shinji first, but Rei wasn't going to be waiting for long to join up. Sasami would have her cake and eat it too. Would it be odd to be intimate with her husband and best friend…yes. Would it be odd to teach Rei the Jurian custom of whips and bondage, maybe. Would she regret it…no.

"M-Mommy how is Ryo-oki's fitting going?" Sasami called out to the closed curtain. She could hear 'oohs' and 'aahs' nearly ever five minutes, but she had not heard any commotion from the cabbit now in little girl form. While Sasami knew Ryo-Oki could take her adult form just as easily now, thanks to training, it was decided it would be best the cabbit be the flower girl. "Mommy?" oh how she hated that word, but angering her mother now would only serve to make life a living hell.

Hopping out of the curtain in a smaller version of Rei's dress, the Cabbit mya'd in happiness. "Shinji! Shinji! Shinji!" she high pitched cabbit squeaked out. Speaking was still a little hard for the humanoid weapon of mass destruction, but the emotion was evident. That cabbit was happy as a cat in a bucket of catnip.

In the fitting room, Misaki lay unconscious with a bliss filled expression that would be impossible for any normal thinking person to replicate. "Your mother passed out after seeing the completed ensemble. So I take it she is happy with the outcome," the third greatest tailor, a younger woman, stated with no lack of modesty. "I must say, this man is very lucky to have such wonderful women as his wives. I wish you all the best of luck," the tired woman added.

Holding onto Ryo-Oki's tiny furry hands as the cabbit pranced about, Sasami couldn't think of any words to say back. Shinji was lucky, Sasami felt no egotism in thinking that. But she was lucky too. This planet, this tiny low-tech world was filled with so much life, so much happiness, that it brought a tear to her eye. After Tenchi and the others were sucked into that void, Sasami thought that Earth was nothing but pain and suffering.

Then Misaki said her husband would come from that rock, she loathed the idea. All the other potential husbands had been horrible people, but royalty. Brash, uncouth, selfish, stubborn, or just plain mean but they had been born into the world as royalty and as such potential husbands. But her mother, that crazy yet lovable woman, broke tradition due to a friendship she made on earth. Yui Ikari make Misaki change her mind, and from that friendship the idea of marrying Sasami to Shinji took root.

Earth, for all its pain and sadness had created some lovely and beautiful things. Sasami wasn't born on earth, but she felt she was an earthling now. Watching Ryo-Oki dance, Rei wince as the needle finally gave her a jab. Listening to Asuka yelling at her half-sisters in the other room, it was all so perfectly aligned. Before she knew it, she was crying tears of happiness.

Life had taken such drastic turns in her life. But she was here now, back on earth, and not afraid of it. She couldn't be happier now, and in three weeks she'd finally be wed. "Wait…three weeks…Shinji's dream…" Sasami dabbed at her tears as the little tidbit of info wafted into her wedding filled brain. Shinji had told her about his dream, said specifically a month had taken place between announcement before wedding. Had he known it was going to be pushed back…nah she was just being silly and jumping at shadows.

X-X

Kenji Tsukino was about ready to throttle the boy at his supper table. The boy had to have some infernal plans for his daughter, it was the only thing that made sense. His lovable, flighty, and gullible little girl was likely a planned notch on the insipid boy's belt. "So Ikari-kun, what brings you to our dinner table today?" he kept his tone as civil as possible. Only after he exposed the cockroach would he throw the child out.

Looking up from the supper Ikuko prepared, Shinji bashfully turned to Usagi and back to her father. "Well after my fitting ended I saw Usagi" a cough from the pigtailed girl forced Shinji to correct himself, "Usagi-chan carrying to many books so I asked to help her. I um…stumbled putting them on her table and that was where you walked in," Shinji went back to eating the savory meal before him. "This is really good Ikuko-san," he admitted between bites.

"No need to be so formal, Shinji-kun, you can just call me Ikuko if you like," the housewife pawed playfully at her daughter's guest. Winking once at her daughter, Ikuko gave the girl a secret thumbs up.

Yes…that was what the boy's cover story was for pushing his darling daughter to the ground. Had he not went to investigate the thumb, Kenji was sure this boy's pants would have accidentally fallen down. Then he would stumble and oops sorry I got your daughter pregnant sir. Picking at his meal, Kenji didn't care for it to much, it was far to spicy for him. "So tell us about yourself, Ikari-kun," it wasn't a request but a demand. A father's work was never done.

"Daddy stop picking on Shin-chan, he apologized for knocking me down, so you don't have to take that tone with him," Usagi admonished her father for the prickly tone she heard. Leaning against Shinji, her mighty pigtail coiled in his lap just as Luna made the jump up to her favorite seat. "Get down Luna!" Usagi yelped as the cat's mass tugged her hair down.

Nervously switching between mother and father, Shinji's hand strayed south and absently petted the cat that was nestled on his lap, despite Usagi's protest. "It's alright, Usagi-chan, your father has every reason to be skeptical," he swallowed hard. "But I assure you sir, I have no unscrupulous plans for Usagi-chan," he reaffirmed.

"What does that mean?" Usagi asked as her nose scrunched up cutely in confusion. "I know the other girls brought you over to their places and you did nothing wrong. But were they lying and you guys DID do something?" Usagi gushed.

Slamming his hand on the table, Kenji knocked several glasses of tea over and made a dainty mess of things. "Don't talk down to me just because you work for Nerv! I know you have plans for my daughter!" he roared. Usagi said it herself! That boy was hitting up any piece of meat he could find, and was working his way through Usagi's friends and now eyeing her! "I will not sit in my house, at my table, and watch some teenage lothario try and woo my daughter before my eyes! I would like you to leave now before I say something I'll regret!" Kenji was putting his foot down.

Shingo just swallowed his food and watched his father freak out. Having asked Shinji countless questions about the Eva's earlier, the young boy had a small case of hero worship. But he had never seen his father so angry before, and that kept the lad from jumping to Shinji's defense.

Usagi however, god bless her vacant brain, had no fears in standing up to Kenji. Having faced demons, aliens, and countless other life threatening creatures her father was nothing to be afraid of. "Daddy stop! Shin-chan was telling the truth…whatever unscrupulous means! All my friends said so themselves, they all like him a lot! I like him a lot! That's why I tricked him into coming over to help me! I hadn't planned on him falling on me, but I was hoping SOMETHING would happen! Ever since Mamoro betrayed me I've been so lonely…Shinji took that away!" Usagi revealed her master plan a little to early.

Stunned into silence, Kenji watched as his little girl…no his teenage daughter seething across from him. Even in her anger she was beautiful in his eyes. But she wasn't a little girl, he had to accept that. "Usagi-chan…I didn't know you took that boy's leaving you so hard. How-how was I to know?" he asked. The silence was only broken by the steady drip of water falling off the table.

Turning to her stunned guest, Usagi grabbed Shinji's hand and pulled him to his feet. "I'm sorry Shinji, but we'll have to cut supper short. Daddy and I have to have a little talk," she confessed leading the boy to the door. Seeing him shocked and silent, yet a small blush adorning his cheeks. "Oops! I said to much about why I brought you over here didn't I," Usagi's brain finally registered what she had confessed earlier.

"It's true though," Usagi said softly as she opened the door for Shinji. The night air was brisk and cool, the full moon hung majestically in the air. "We all…we all tried to make you see that. We asked you to join our study group because we were interested. In time we became more than interested. We all tried, we all failed…but…this isn't the end." She took the boy's hands in hers. "You're getting married, but Ami said we could marry you too…and that's…well…" she leaned in and kissed Shinji's lips softly.

"We all hope you'll consider us…we do represent the planets of the solar system," Usagi knew Shinji knew their secret so why hide it. "All we ask is the chance to prove it," she didn't let him talk, didn't let him even show his reaction to her boldness. Pushing him out the door, Usagi shut him out without a word. Right now she didn't have the strength to be rejected again, if he did reject them all. No, all her strength was needed to confront her father who's doting had went on to long and went to far.

X- Usagi again wins out as only her unflappably kindness can –X

Walking down the darkened hallways with only the light of her flashlight to guide her, Washu didn't like the smell of things. The facility was much like Nerv, full of long winding corridors of white metallic paneling. With the power generator off though, Washu was left to navigate the maze using only her HUD readout of the base's plans.

"Misaki better thank me for this, or maybe I can get Tsunami to make some plants that will work with my computers," Washu mused as she listened to the echoing of her footfalls. Her powers were coming back in rapid fashion, making the diminutive crab aficionado wonder why she sealed them off so long ago. Sure the prayers of the coding geeks got annoying, but it wasn't that bad a thing.

So to better get a hang of her returning powers, Washu's present besides Aisha was going to be killing as many of those odd monsters as possible. Her tracker though led her to this abandoned facility. "Something happened here, and I don't think we're going to like it," she muttered to her Washu-O's on each shoulder. They agreed, as per usual.

Checking the mess hall, Washu found nothing of interest but a bottle of soda she liberated from a table. The medical wing was empty of all personnel, but a slew of papers and reports were strewn about widely. Most of the papers were encrypted or blacked out to the point of uselessness, but Washu learned one thing. Whatever project Tabris was, it failed really late into the game. "Somebody purposefully mutated the experiments it seems," she quipped and dropped the reports back onto the ground before heading back into the hallways.

"Mihoshi would say this is the part of the scary movie when the heroin gets attacked. Well since technically I'm the monster I'll have to ravish any females I find to live up to her expectations," Washu cackled madly at the idea of playing some sci-fi monster.

Finding the command bridge devoid of anybody or any sign as to why the base was empty, Washu pressed on into the commander's office. While the office was smaller than the one at Nerv, Washu found the same secret door that lead to an elevator. "Why must power always be out…but it's nothing my genius can't fix!" she exclaimed as she pulled a portable generator the size of a D-battery from her pocket and hooked it into the wiring.

The tiny light from inside the elevator illuminated the room, a room with two large blood smears on the wall in roughly a human shape. Long since dried, Washu still didn't like the new décor. "Nothing is ever easy is it," she moaned as she hit the button to close the door and start her decent.

Long and boring as usual, she was going to have to make a new type of elevator that was more entertaining. When the door did open, Washu had to blink back hard as this layer of the base was running of a different power source that was still in operation. "Lookie lookie what I found," she grinned wide and set off with a faster pace. Something good was hiding down here, even if her angel detector was still reading only trace signs.

Empty labs, empty storage containers, and a room of several decaying men and one woman in lab coats was all she found as she moved deeper. Not one body was complete either, well she did find two fresher bodies in a closet but they appeared to have died doing something to alleviate the fear of death…they died happy. "Somebody was playing with things they didn't understand," Washu solemnly shut the door to the lab and the fools that tried playing god only to have their creation bite the hand that feed them.

Coming to the last door, aptly named 'dummy plug' Washu held back a snort. Everything about this place was screaming 'dummy' at this point. She was putting the pieces of the narrative together in her mind, at speeds that would have pissed off the crew of the Enterprise that thought they had the fastest moving piece of technology.

This was some organization that was opposed to pre-expulsion-Gendo Nerv. Using some part of one of the destroyed creatures, attempted to clone them, or replicate them. From the reports it seemed that they were able to create some form of mental control, but it was limited. Somebody took that control and turned it on the rest of the base. Only question was who did it, and why?

Walking into that last room, Washu's brow furrowed and a nasty scowl adorned her typically cute features. She was standing in a room with a very large and very destroyed tank. No clues left, and with the computers shot all the security feed was lost. "No rest for the wicked…Tsunami you so owe me for this. Going to totally request some super powered grandchildren soon to play with," she gathered her gear and left the abandoned base.

There was nothing left but ghosts of foolish men, with foolish ideals. Whatever happened here, Washu would have to uncover soon, but she half suspected that it was going to reveal itself in three weeks if she didn't find it sooner.

X- The plot thickens! –X

Authors notes

Yeah this chapter didn't have much Shinji did it? So much going on and so little time to get to all of it. Trying to balance humor and serious as usual is tough for this story. It can go wacky to utter deathly serious in such a short time.

Oh well that's half the fun. On a side note, and in regards to some questions and emails I got…I'm thinking of more silly cross over ideas, yeah I know me and cross overs…what's the deal. I just love stupid fanservice shows…not cause of the fan service but for the fact I see such unexplored depth in them. They have such great ideas but they hardly scratch the surface of what can be done with them! Well…I'll see what I can do. Currently thinking of ideas for Kanokon, Ladies V Butlers, and Asobi ni Iku Yo.

Debating if I want to have another 'throw them all in a blender and hit max' or go more one per cross-over. Oh and finding more source material is always a pain…Kanokon manga is surprisingly deep but the anime was just…meh, same goes foe Ladies…as for Asobi show isn't even finished yet so its hard to get much and I've no access to the manga…oh well

I'm rambling so I'll sign off here…good luck have fun and talk toya later!

Ja mata

Zentrodie


	48. No Need for clothing

Standard Disclaimer

Ah and we're several steps closer to marital bliss for Ikari and his menagerie. I, on the other hand, am one step closer to pulling out warmer clothing as fall is hitting like a jackhammer. Been watching a few new shows coming out, sadly nothing is very unique or 'good' this season. Oh well, we can't have Toradora's every season now can we.

X-X

What We Make of It

Chapter – 48 Getting to Know you

or –

Years alone with loved ones creates clothing aversion

With Belldandy to her left and Keiichi to her right, Urd sat pensively on the couch in the shrine. Belldandy held her hand gently and supportively as Urd gazed into the oddly warm yet calculating eyes of her mother. Urd couldn't believe it, wouldn't believe it, but Hild did seem to be changing. Was being Shinji's adopted mother changing Hild so much that this wedding business wasn't just some elaborate trap for them?

"Well you got us here and up at the ass-crack of dawn, Hild. Are you going to tell us why now?" Urd spat out. It was hard to be so cruel to Hild, but the damn laws had to be obeyed. Only on Christmas during their dreams could they openly express their sense of family. It doubly hurt as each time she slammed or verbally abused Hild, Shinji shrunk in retaliation. That girl, Aoi, on his side however just had a Belldandy-esque smile of blithe ignorance.

Arm casually draped around her son's shoulders, Hild uncrossed and re-crossed her legs. "The wedding is in little under two weeks, Urd," she stated very matter of fact. Bending forward, her hair extensions and bangles jingled as her less than conservative outfit let her assets giggle. Hild quickly gave Keiichi a look to make sure he was getting the show, before turning to her child and their shared ward. "Things will be happening very quickly from here on out. Practices, ceremonial meals, and whatnot have to be planned and scheduled for. So now is the last opportunity for you to join in on the fun," Hild's tone was heavy with sadness.

"Hild-san, this is a very private matter for Urd, having Shinji-san here with his…friend might not be the best atmosphere for decision making," Belldandy offered. Her hand clasped Urd's tighter in response to Urd's own motions. Sitting in a sunbeam, Belldandy waved in uncomfortable frazzled distress. "Perhaps Kei-chan can take the two of them out back for a few minutes?" she offered hopefully.

Leaning forward, his face red from the unexpected show Hild flashed him with, Keiichi coughed into his fist. "Yeah, I can take Shinji and A-Aoi to show them the changes I made to the Beemer. A-Ask him if Morrigan has chosen a best-man yet or anything," Keiichi scooted closer to the edge of his cushion. The atmosphere was thick and almost choking.

Urd took it all in. Weighed the wishes of Belldandy and Keiichi against that broken and mournful look of her would-be brother, Urd had to make her choice now. She had spent the full week since her little blowout thinking about it. Yes Shinji was her adopted brother, but he had only been so for several months. In that time they hadn't had a typical brother/sister relationship, no it was more akin to the beginning stages of a romantic relationship.

Not lying to herself though, Urd accepted that if she did go along with Hild's plan there would be some strangeness involved. She would be the third bride, THIRD! She was the damn goddess of love, not some cheep handout, she deserved to be FIRST! Belldandy was first, and while Keiichi was loath to accept it but in the end he did, Peorth was going to be second. Could she live with that insufferable goddess of roses lording that over her?

Standing up, Shinji's hand extended towards Aoi. "They have a point, mom. Maybe it would be best if we let Urd…" Shinji added reading the unspoken words of pleading from Keiichi and Belldandy. He however hadn't read his mother very well, and his hand trailed down and his body reverberated with a tumultuous fright at what occurred next.

"No," Hild gently grabbed Shinji's arm and propelled him back down to the couch. It wasn't a painful move, it wasn't harsh or rude in anyway. But Hild's words were cold as ice. This was a group decision, nobody was getting out of this, and Hild was making that clear. Shinji was not exempt, Urd was not exempt, neither was Aoi, Belldandy, or Keiichi. "This concerns everybody in this room. An arranged marriage between heaven and earth is something both sides take great stakes in. As I am his mother it means heaven, hell, and earth will be partaking in this arranged marriage," Hild kept stressing the word 'arranged'.

Aoi just sat watching the scene unfold. She didn't speak, but she did lean heavily against her pillar of love and support. Much like Urd took comfort from Belldandy's hand, Aoi gave her comfort to Shinji' through her thigh and shoulder. Her kimono rode up slightly, giving her alabaster calf's room to be viewed by the other man in the room. Aoi caught a few glimpses of Keiichi watching, and as per her teaching secretly hiked up the edge to further push the man over the edge. All in the name of training herself to better entice Shinji.

Standing up, Urd walked pensively around her side of the room. "Hild does have a point, nobody should have to make this type of decision alone. Not when so much will be impacted by it," Urd's voice lost a lot of its normal playfulness. It was time to be serious and put the jokes and innuendo aside. Knowing Belldandy as she did, Urd knew that taking Hild's offer also meant the eventual joining of Skuld into the mix. Belldandy was never to keen on sharing Keiichi, only Peorth being so smitten got Belldandy to accept the new goddess into the marriage bed. Skuld was another matter, hell Shinji was going to be the sacrificial lamb they fed to the Goddess of the Future at the wedding.

Checking the wall clock, Aoi gasped, "Oh Shinji-sama, you're scheduled meeting with Washu-san is coming up soon. We don't have much time left." Falling against Shinji's side, pressing herself suggestively against him, she smiled widely as Shinji's face burst red and his flustered. Oh how Aoi was taking to her training all to well.

"STOP DOING THAT IN MY LIVINGROOM!" Urd expounded and stomped her foot. And in that one motion, that single act of jealousy, Urd had her answer. It was ok for her to do such things, but not this kimono clad hussy. Why was that? Because, silly, she could feel the growing sensation of love. It wasn't close to what Belldandy and Keiichi felt for one another, but the flame was lit and if tended could become a bonfire. "S-stop clinging so close to my…fiancé" Urd's face burnt a deep crimson matching Shinji's.

Instantly up on her feet, Belldandy crushed Urd in a hug that would have killed a human. "You finally accepted your feelings! I'm so happy for you!" Belldandy peppered Urd's cheeks with tiny kisses. Spinning out of the hug so quickly it sent Urd spinning like a top and falling to the ground, Belldandy was a human-seeking missile locked on to Shinji. "And you…" Belldandy's smile grew to fear inducing scale, "You will treat my sister like the goddess she is." Scooping Shinji out of Hild's grasp, Belldandy hugged Shinji.

As Belldandy fought against Aoi in the great 'congratulate Shinji' war, Hild snuck over to her dazed child's side. Hovering over Urd's face, "Are you sure about this, daughter? Are you positive this is what you want?" Hild's expression was neutral. Everything about the CEO of hell was calm and collected, except how her eyes couldn't stay fixed. "If you agree to this now, it's binding in heaven and in hell. You will not be able to back out. No divorce exists for us like it does for the mortals. Are you willingly binding your soul to my son's?" Hild's voice lowered and lowered so only Urd could hear.

Lying on the ground, the world spun around, but Hild's face was stationary. What was her mother playing at now? Why the sudden change from wanting this wedding to questioning her acceptance of it. "Yes, Hild. Seeing that whelp on him made me realize how jealous I was. Sure it means eventually I'll be sharing him with Skuld as Belldandy forces that one on us. Yes it means, as sick as it sounds, I'll be marrying my half-brother. But in time…" Urd trailed off. In time they could overcome. In time such things wouldn't matter.

The room was engulfed in a blinding purple light as Hild's many markings flared up and sent two beams of light out. One went skyward and was met with a thunderous boom, and the other went downward to what sounded like cheers. Aoi, who had Shinji's head clasped to her chest let go of the boy who tumbled into Belldandy taking the two to floor in a mess. Keiichi fell back into the couch and hoped somebody would fix the hole that was just made in the roof.

The next moment was burnt into everybody in attendances mind. Hild started crying like a little girl. Not just a few tears, no it was a torrent of water cascading down her finely etched features. "Oh my baby girl…my darling and only little girl," Hild crushed Urd against her. "Article 345, sub-paragraph 3, line 54 – all ethereal allegiance is rendered moot when party-A joins party-B who has allegiance to party-C," Hild just sat their hugging her daughter.

"Wait…what? Mom stop that…mom…MOM!" Urd cried out ecstatically. Whatever Hild was babbling about must have meant that the wall separating the two of them had been lifted. _She couldn't tell me this or it would have invalidated things! But now…now we can be…_Urd closed her eyes and hugged Hild back for the first time since they were separated at her birth. The dream didn't hold a candle to this moment.

"Oh I'm dreadfully sorry Shinji-san, but if you must make love to somebody could it be Urd or Skuld?" Belldandy stated staring down at the boy who fell on top of her. "Kei-chan could you show him to one of the bedrooms?" she said with blissful stupidity. Standing up, picking Shinji up as if he were a dry twig and setting him down, Belldandy didn't notice how her comment resonated in the room and everybody just facepalmed.

X- How to misread the scene 101 with your instructor Belldandy –X

Drying his hands with a paper towel, Shinji turned the faucet on again and started cleaning his hands for a forth time. He wasn't stalling, no not at all, his hands were just REALLY dirty, yeah that was it. Why would he be nervous about meeting more of Sasami's family? That was being stupid. "Isn't that right Ryo-Oki? I'm just making sure I'm clean before I meet those people," Shinji scratched the purring cabbit's chin.

An hour after Belldandy nearly broke his brain by insinuating he wanted to take her in the middle of her own living room before her husband, Shinji was told Washu was bringing Sasami's extended family to earth for the wedding. He was going to finally meet those people she talked about so much and so fondly. This Tenchi person, her first love, he was going to actually see what her ideal man was. Sister Ayeka, friend Mihoshi, and some living embodiment of carnage named Ryoko, he was going to meet them all.

"Man my hands really are dirty today," he washed them again. The summoning should have taken place a few minutes ago, not that Shinji was watching the clock like a maniac. He wasn't nervous at all, nope not one tiny bit. Dropping another sopping paper towel in the trash bin, Shinji's head hung low as he stepped out of the washroom with Ryo-Oki on his shoulder. "How bad can this really be, right?" he asked the cabbit.

From her second favorite perch, Ryo-Oki sat up on her hind legs, eyes going wide, the cabbit whimpered. Jumping to the ground, turning to her furry adult form, she dove on top of Shinji taking him to the ground. A moment later a screaming bullet of red energy exploded behind them sending shrapnel everywhere and sent a large section of wall right against her head sending her to dreamland.

"There you are! Home wrecker! Vandal! THIEF!" an emerald haired woman in a skintight black and red combat uniform hollered. Ryoko flew as fast as the twisting and turning hallways of Nerv would allow. "I won't let you steal Sasami from us! She's to good for some stupid arranged marriage!" Ryoko yelled again as she fired off two more blasts.

With his best 'oh shit' face on, Shinji grabbed the cabbit's ears and took off down the hall. His mind worked quick for somebody that had death incarnate chasing after him. _This must be that Ryoko woman Sasami told me about. _It had been a very long phone call the previous night where Sasami casually informed Shinji of her family's impending visit. His heart was thumping in his ears, his body light as a feather as he ducked under blasts of hot plasma being fired at him. Yup, nothing to be worried about what so ever!

"Oh yeah…they closed off this hallway for the chapel," Shinji said offhanded as he found his escape route blocked by a newly installed metal wall. Pressing his back against the damn thing that insured he was soon to have a very close encounter, Shinji rolled the sleeping cabbit under a nearby gurney. Queerly he felt calm as he saw the approaching figure of doom. "Y-you must be Ryoko," he extended his hand in peace.

Shocking the lad, Ryoko actually flew to a stop a scant few inches from his face and actually shook his hand. "And you're Ikari Shinji," Ryoko gave the lad's hand a painful squeeze. "You have a nice look about you, nice speed and stamina, but I'm going to have to kill you. No offense," she grinned wide and licked her chops as she formed her energy blade.

His training with Attim kicked into high gear as the weapon took shape. Waiting for the blade to move, Shinji sprung off the wall in a diving roll the moment he saw it move. In one motion he got behind Ryoko, rolled off the ground, and got back to his feet. "W-why do you have to kill me again?" he asked trying to catch his breath. Seeing the dainty scar in the wall from the attack, he knew nothing he grabbed would deflect it, he had no weapon to defend against it.

Nodding in approval, Ryoko's feral attitude switched to one of shocked acceptance. "Not bad, only Tenchi could dodge me before," she sunk to the floor and through it. Phasing through matter, Ryoko watched her prey move in unsuspected ways. He moved to a large opening in where three hallways connected, she'd not be able to get use the walls. "I'll give you credit for being braver than I would have suspected," she announced as she phased back up behind him. "Most people are terrified by my little phasing trick," her tone was growing in appreciation.

Dodging two more would be lethal attacks, Shinji actually found himself smiling back at Ryoko. "My sensei can do it too. She beat sensing my opponents intend into my head over many ground slams," Shinji was just hoping he didn't offend Attim by dieing here. They were supposed to have supper together tonight, and he'd hate to miss that on the count of being incinerated. Getting into a defensive stance, fists ready to strike, Shinji didn't know why he wasn't more afraid, "You didn't answer my question, Ryoko-san. Why do you have to kill me?"

Her blade vanished and she cracked her knuckles. "Sasami deserves to choose her partner, not have him chosen for her," Ryoko said defiantly. Lashing out with a vicious but telegraphed one-two punch, Ryoko wiffed on both counts. "None of us will let her go like this, just because Misaki was friends with your mother," Ryoko punched again and left an impact creator in the wall behind Shinji's head. "She deserves to marry somebody she loves, not some political alliance!" Ryoko raged.

Grabbing Ryoko's arm, Shinji flipped the woman on her back, not counting on her flying back to her feet and slamming him instead. It was the G-force of the slam that rattled Shinji's brain and left him dazed more than the hit itself. He had misjudged his opponent's ability to fly at will, Morrigan would be upset with him for that. "But I do love her," Shinji defended as his vision continued to swim. Was this really how it was going to end? Killed by his fiancé's over protective friend.

Sitting on the boy's stomach, Ryoko expression changed. No longer did she appear enthralled and malicious, no she appeared apprehensive almost reluctant. "Everybody loves Sasami, its impossible not too. But you loving her isn't enough, she has to love you back. So again…no offence but you got to go," she materialized her blade again and it hung over her target's head. "You seem to be a good kid, but Sasami comes first you understand," and the blade descended.

Catching Ryoko's wrist with the blade a mere inch from Shinji's throat, Sasami hoisted Ryoko off Shinji's body. "He's MY fiancé Ryoko-san! You cannot play with him like you do Tenchi! You might hurt him!" Sasami held Ryoko by the arm high in the air. In her full glory, Sasami was every embodiment of Tsunami at that moment. "I saw how you were looking at him, so Tenchi isn't enough for you anymore?" Sasami pulled Ryoko dangerously close to her face.

"I-uh…what? Shinji what is she going on about?" Ryoko stupidly asked the boy she was about to slay. Fighting to free herself, Ryoko could only stare in the face both Ayeka and she had grown to fear would steal Tenchi.

Sitting up, rubbing the back of his head, Shinji could taste a little copper in the back of his throat. "Sasami-chan can be a little jealous at times," he said while rubbing at his jaw. He had been saved again at the last moment by one of his to-be brides. Not the most manly of things, but Shinji accepted that having a Goddess of creation as his bride would make being manly hard. "And Sasami-chan, I think you're over reacting. Ryoko just wanted to kill me because she wants you to marry somebody you love," he brushed off the attempted murder.

"But I do love you, Shinji. Why else would seeing her sitting on your chest make me…" her face burst red, but Sasami continued holding Ryoko. Pulling the space pirate down to eye level, "Ryoko, I've missed you." Sasami pulled Ryoko into a hug that would have made her mother proud.

X- It's not Ryoko if she doesn't try killing on the first meeting –X

Washu was trying to keep herself composed, but it was so very hard not to burst into fits of hysterical laughter. Brining her daughter and the rest back to earth had been just as easy as she suspected it would have been, but the after effects well…they were just hilarious. Ryoko speeding off to castrate if not kill Shinji had been expected, Washu knew her daughter's take on protecting family was odd. Washu also knew that if Shinji did get hurt, Sasami could fix it. Hell Tsunami saved Tenchi after being cut in half by a damn shot from Shoja.

What really made Washu surprised and then get the giggle fits was two fold. First, one of her wayward sisters had joined Tenchi's menagerie. Why Tokimi joined in, Washu didn't care. The second was, while she joked about it, they really did forget about clothing. Seeing Ayeka, the queen of prudes, standing naked as a jaybird and without care was just mild altering.

"So…" Washu suppressed another laugh, "Why did you join team Tenchi again Tokimi?" Washu had already made the announcement that she remembered her status as creator Goddess to her sister so it wasn't a big deal. Washu spied Tenchi and the girls eating some of the provided snacks Sasami had made and presented before chasing off after the man killing daughter of hers.

Just as free as the rest, the ample bodied Tokimi blushed and swung her hands back and forth. "Well I tried attacking them in that dimension they were in and found them…all of them…well I was intrigued," Tokimi babbled. Waving at her lovers, Tokimi wanted to get back to their existence of pure unadulterated happy time.

Snorting, Washu covered her mouth to keep the illusion alive. "So you walked in on them having a snog fest and wanted in. That's it?" Washu had to admit that emotional beings like being with others and Tokimi was the most removed from the four. The prayer's Tokimi got were all involved in death and killing, so the making of life was something different.

As Tokimi bashfully nodded, Tenchi called out from behind the snack table, "Washu-chan, are you sure we shouldn't go and stop Ryoko before she hurts this boy of Sasami's?" Popping a handful of chips into his mouth, Tenchi shivered as his exposed flesh got a full blast from the A/C. "I mean if Sasami really does care about him, shouldn't we stop her from doing something bad?" Tenchi got some nods from Mihoshi and Ayeka.

"Tenchi, Sasami's beau was able to fend off a city of insane lusty women. I'm sure he can survive Ryoko until Sasami can find them," Washu admonished. Feeding the blood work she drew from the assembled living orgy, the scientist was going to insure they were healthy enough to continue their exercise. "So how have you all been lately? I know it must have been really boring being lost in hyperspace," Washu snickered again.

Sampling some of the light wine Sasami provided, Ayeka just brushed her hair over her shoulder. "Everything was fine until the game system started making us study for three hours before unlocking. I suspect you had something to do with that," Ayeka glared hate filled beams at the diminutive woman. "As for the rest of our time," she covered her mouth demurely, "I think that is best left between us."

_Says the woman so used to being nude she's forgotten that she isn't wearing clothing._ Washu pounded on her console t keep the laughter at bay. "Yeah I can 'see' that Ayeka," Washu added the last of the blood into the system. "Speak of the devil, it seems the rest of the party is finally hear," Washu gestured to the now nude Ryoko the blushing Sasami who was holding the hand of the last and clearly frazzled Shinji Ikari. "So good of you to join us," Washu was loving how Shinji's purity was making the boy about faint.

True to form, Ayeka boldly and regally approached the couple as Ryoko flew off to molest Tenchi as custom. Standing without a shred of modesty, her body showing the effects of cold on the body, Ayeka inspected her sister's chosen. "He's a little short," she kneeled over and stared him in the eye until Shinji's head crooned back. "How rude of you young man! Don't you know who I am? I am Ayeka Jurai! Sister of your soon to be wife, so you should treat me with more respect!" she shouted and grabbed Shinji's head and forced him to see her.

"M-m-m-m-m" Shinji eloquently yammered as he got a full view of Ayeka's body in all its glory. His head could be seen straining against Ayeka's hold, but unable to free it. It wouldn't really save him, as nearly every direction held one of Tenchi's nude crew. His hand went slack and fell from Sasami's, who in turn was more than a little amazed at Ayeka's exhibitionism.

Falling off her invisible seat, Washu couldn't take it anymore. Gales of laughter peeled out of the woman as she rolled on the ground yipping. "A-Ayeka…maybe he's just not used to your new clothing," Washu got out between guffaws and yucks. How anybody could be so smart and yet so oblivious was beyond Washu, all she knew was it was so priceless that she was glad she was secretly recording every minute of it.

Oh how she missed this, these crazy moments that her old life held. Not that her new life was any less full of adventure and hilarity. Their was just something about the others, and she was glad she permanently linked Tenchi's home with her lab so they could come and go as they pleased.

"Washu-san, what about my clothing would make him not look at me?" Ayeka asked with growing annoyance. Looking down at herself, Ayeka's body seemed to stop. Her body, almost against its own wishes, crooned back to Shinji and then back at her beautiful yet exposed self. "PERVERT!" she bellowed and pushed both Sasami and Shinji back against the wall.

"Oh yeah, I forgot we've stopped wearing clothing to keep Tenchi rearing to go," Ryoko quipped as she continued to hug Tenchi as she flew around him. A moment later she was garbed in her standard green and light purple kimono, and doing her best to cover Tenchi's body with her own. "Guess we forgot that little fact," Ryoko didn't sound the least bit concerned.

Helping Shinji to his feet, Mihoshi promptly hugged the boy to her exposed chocolate colored bosom. "It's so good to see Sasami getting married to such a polite cutie!" she cooed and waved the boy like a rag doll as she held him against her. She stopped as a wetness spread across the largest set of mummeries in the room, "Washu-san I think I broke him! His eyes are closed and he's drooling!" She held the unconscious Shinji out like a broken toy.

It took Washu five minutes to recover from her bout of the sillies. Taking Shinji from Mihoshi and applying some smelling salts, she brought the over stimulated boy back to reality. "I think he's just not used to so much flesh on display at once, Sasami you might try and rectify that," she snorted. "Why don't you join your sister and we can strip him while we're at it! Have a big nude love in," Washu would get what she wanted then. Sasami and Shinji's overpowered children.

Running into the room, Misaki was doing just what Washu was advocating. "My daughters are all together again! And sharing skinship while they're at it! Let mommy join in too!" Misaki grabbed her eldest daughter before Ayeka could escape. "Oh and it seems Tenchi is happy to see me too, you naughty boy," she tossed Ayeka aside to hug Tenchi who very much looked like he wanted to die.

"Washu-chan, I don't think I can take this," Shinji gasped as he sat up and saw Misaki getting attacked by a very irate Ryoko. Sasami nodded fiercely in agreement as Mihoshi started heading their way, the Goddess of Nature moved to block Shinji's view of the nubile blonde. "C-can we get them cloths or something…or are they just going to be…" he didn't know where to go with his statement as Misaki ditched Tenchi for a full body hug of Ryoko.

Grabbing the print out from her computer, Washu just patted Shinji's shoulder. "No worries, they won't be going au naturale for the wedding. I've some clothing for them already," Washu started reading her printout before bursting into another fit of maniacal laughter. "Oh this is too much! Mihoshi is one month pregnant!" Washu fell back to the ground laughing as the room suddenly just went dead quiet.

Squealing Mihoshi danced about the room on cloud nine, "I'm the first! I'm the first to carry Ten-chan's child!"

Ryoko and Ayeka stormed over to read the print out and then started chasing after Tenchi claiming they were going to be the second as Tokimi joined in. Sasami just sat next to Shinji smiling as they ran about like fools, she held his hand and smiled at him. "I missed them so much, but…I'm glad I'm not chasing after Tenchi like they are now," she leaned over and kissed Shinji's cheek before Misaki found them…stripped them…and the two opted to avoid looking at each other for the hour long 'nude family reunion'.

Getting off the ground and fixing herself up, Washu just watched it all. She wasn't about to join in on happy naked time, but it was crazy fun to watch. Sasami deserved to have all of her family at the wedding, hence she gave the Sasami the endowment early. It would be closure for the young woman too, to see that first love and have it accept her new path in life. Growing to her adult form, Washu considered for a moment shedding her lab coat, but opted against it. Sasami was frazzled enough sitting nude next to Shinji. The wedding night would be awfully awkward for them if that kept up. And that gave Washu the necessary idea for Shinji's pre-wedding gift…oh yes…Washu had a nice idea.

X- Say hi to the cast of Tenchi Muyo everybody sans clothing –X

The dining room was empty besides her and Shinji, and Attim wouldn't have had it any other way. Not with her forced to wear the French maid costume again for failing at one of Morrigan's insipid training ordeals. Seriously, how did Morrigan expect her to be able to poll dance? After falling on her head a record number of times, Morrigan failed her and her punishment was the maid costume. Though Shinji was either immune to its inherent lust driving arts or was really good at hiding it.

Picking at her meal, Attim could tell the man she pledged her life to defend was having an off evening. He had came back from Nerv flustered about Sasami's family, but when questioned about supper clammed up and retreated to his room with that wench in tow. Aoi. Attim was getting so flustered about the girl that she even started hating the damn color. The girl just took to the training like a fish to water and showed her up at every turn! Aoi had been such a timid flower when she first moved in and now she was latching on to Shinji at every turn!

"You made this today didn't you," Attim peeked to her right at the boy eating at her side. Sure he could have sat across the table from her, but what was the point of eating together if they couldn't talk normally? It was the subtle nature of the flavor that hinted that Shinji had cooked and not Tira or Chocolate who went to extravagance. "It's good," she popped another piece of broccoli into her mouth with a satisfying crunch.

With Hild finalizing the paper work to get her daughter back, Shinji sat alone with Attim. The meal he had prepared, Attim's favorite, was going mostly uneaten on his plate. He picked at it, pushed it around, enjoyed what he did eat, but had no apatite. "G-glad you enjoy it. I was worried I let the beef grill to long, but if you like it that is all that matters," he quickly turned back down to gaze at the food that offered no answers only deliciousness.

Sipping her drink, a sparkling summer wine, Attim blinked at it for a moment. "I won't ask where or how you got this. You're to young to buy it, so I'll assume Hild has some stashed away in this cavernous mansion," she took another drink. Did she ask him what was bothering him, stew in the silence, or let it slide and trying making him happy. Only problem was, aside from sparing and teasing him, she didn't know what to do. He was going to be married soon, yet she was his concubine. But in name only it seemed. Another annoying issue was why that bothered her so much.

Before, when her life was measured out in years not millennia, she had written Shinji's affections off as but a dream. Attim wasn't going to try and form a romantic relationship because when she died it would only hurt him. Now, thanks to that crazed woman scientist, she was giving a new license on life. But didn't she burn those bridges? Could she go back like she wished she could? Seeing all those other women, soon to be or eventual wives, sharing all kinds of memories with him, Attim greedily wanted some herself!

Finishing her meal, Attim wiped her mouth with the napkin. "Excellent as always, now how do we go about working off all those calories?" she smiled seductively at the lad and wrapped her arm around his waist. "Feel up for a spar or maybe dancing lessons for the big day? Everybody is going to want to dance with you so you better have some good moves," she teased.

Pulling away from Attim, Shinji briskly got to his feet and stumbled back a few steps from the achingly beautiful woman. "A-Attim, I…I uh…" Shinji fumbled for words before lapsing into silence. His fists tensed and relaxed in a steady pattern, but his head remained downcast and silent.

He pushed her off? Was this it? Was he finally going to end the façade or caring? She had trained him, she knew he found her attractive, but was her freakish power finally something he couldn't ignore? Maybe it was her ignorance to society, or any other countless faults she saw that separated her from the likes of Sasami and Asuka.

No matter, even if he was going to cast her down, she would follow him in the shadows and keep him safe for as long as she could. Keeping her voice stable, her chin firmly set, "Something wrong Shin-chan? You don't like me teasing you anymore?" A talented performance that would have anybody believing that she didn't care what was about to happen. Attim should have gotten an award for it.

Falling to his knees, Shinji just blindly groped for Attim's hand. When he found it, "I want to ask you something, Attim-san. And I want your honest and heartfelt answer to it," he sounded calm, the calm of a man on the gallows who knows he's already dead. "Do you regret making your promise to me?" he asked with dead seriousness.

"We went over this already Shinji. You couldn't have prevented my being taken back then. The fact that you tried speaks leagues for your strength of character," Attim hadn't expected this. Why dredge up the past that they put to bed. That virus might have been the worst thing to befall the lad, but it did bring a few important facts into light. "You saved my mind and soul with that act, you gave me the courage to live when I had none, and now I…" she was startled into silence as Shinji spoke.

"THAT'S NOT IT!" the lad yelled and lowered his head more. "That's not what I was talking about. Before…before when you thought you were going to die soon, you promised to stay with me." He sniffed hard but continued his vigil of floor watching. "But now that you're going to live so much longer…do you still feel like you have to honor that promise? Now that you're going to have so much more life to live, do you regret making that promise to me?" his words were a delicious mixture of hope, bitterness, and tenderness.

Lifting Shinji's head up, Attim saw those warm and caring eyes lancing hers again. To hell with those other women. Pulling the boy into a fierce exchange of tongue battle, his body conforming perfectly against hers, Attim had made up her mind. While she would never be the dainty flower that Aoi and Sasami were, or the mind boggling sexy woman that Morrigan was, she was still a woman. A woman that Shinji cared for, she felt that in his feather light touch, his taste in her mouth, and his words in her mind. Being a concubine wasn't going to be a bad thing, and maybe she'd grab a ring for herself someday.

Pushing Shinji away, his body moved as if it were made of air and nothing else. Attim saw his eyes closed and his mouth still open. Playfully shutting it with her hand she saw him finally look at her. "Did that answer your question or should I continue to try and show you that I'm here because I wish to be?" she pulled at the ruffles of her top showing Shinji the color of her bra.

"We might have met under the strangest conditions, and I might not have been very honest with my feelings in the past," Attim tapped Shinji's blushing face. "But know that no force on heaven or earth could prevent me from being at your side. You're stuck with me until the seas boil and the skies fall," Attim ruffled his hair and helped him back to his feet. He was weak in the knees, a good indicator that her lessons in kissing hadn't been wasted. "Now was their anything A-chan needs to do to convince you?" she cooed finally at peace with herself.

Lunging in and hugging Attim, since hugging was the word of the day, Shinji just rubbed his head against her. Due to height differences that did mean he was nestled in the uncanny valley, but it wasn't intentional. "I was so worried you'd regret that promise. I never want you gone either," he confessed. "The thought of a life without you, or with you hating me for making you stay…would be hell, A-A-chan" he finished and broke the embrace.

Her face felt flush, but it was oh so good. "Keep talking like that Shin-chan and I won't be able to keep to Hild's request you be a virgin for your wedding night," Attim blew a kiss to the boy. And the fact she meant it with every fiber of her being shocked not only him but herself with her honesty. "N-now I think a spar would be good for both of us, as I know I'm more than filled with energy and I need an outlet like you wouldn't believe," she roped her arm around Shinji's and dragged the boy to the sparring hall.

Life was odd, at first Attim cursed hers. Now, to hell with the past! She had a future now, and she was going to live it to the fullest. Be it as a concubine, a wife, or just a good friend it didn't matter. She broke free from the shackles her fears and cast upon her, and come what may she'd see it with all the strength she could muster. And it was all thanks to the boy she just bounced off a wall. He smiled just as wide as she did as he got back up.

X- Closure is a good thing isn't it –X

Authors Notes

The Tenchi scene had been playing in my mind for months, and I finally got to use it! Trying to tie up a lot of loose threads for this arc as the wedding draws near. Hope it doesn't seem to rushed or too slow. Well I just hope you enjoy this chapter and continue to support this monstrosity of a story.

Ja Mata

Zentrodie


	49. Three seperate gatherings of insanity

Standard Disclaimer

And merrily I did trudge along. Getting colder outside so walks are fewer and fewer, but I've my bike to keep me fit. Works getting a bit more stressful as I get more responsibilities dumped on me. But I shall persevere and continue to write oddities for your hopeful reading enjoyment.

X-X

What We Make of It

Chapter 49 – A little get together

Or

Why these people should never meet

Sasami looked around the room with a growing terror that words failed to adequately describe. The wedding was less than a week away, and if Sasami could have her way she'd have it tomorrow just to get the assembled cast dispersed again to the four corners of reality. It was inevitable, something was going to go bad and a fight was going to erupt. All Sasami could hope was for this Belldandy woman to NOT impose some sort of punishment for it. At least not like Belldandy did for her own wedding.

Sitting on a couch up at Belldandy's shrine, Sasami sipped on steaming tea next to her soon to be sister-in-law. "This is an excellent blend, Belldandy-san," Sasami lifted the cup up against her cheek with a smile. The tea did help sooth her nerves a tad, but knowing that all of the female wedding parties were gathered together for a little bonding was mind shattering. Spying Asuka and Ryoko talking, Sasami could see that as a powder keg waiting to destroy the shrine. "You'll have to tell me where you got it," she politely asked as she set the cup back down.

Batting her hand playfully, Belldandy's blithe grin did much to denote what was going on in her head. "Oh dear, no need to be so formal! We're going to be family soon and family doesn't have to be that polite," Belldandy tittered. Leaning her head to the right, Bell's head crooned against another woman whose mind was just like hers. "Isn't that right Flonne?" Bell's hands entwined with the other girl's.

"Belldandy is right Sasami-san!" Flonne piped in with an equally insipid grin. Adorned in her seraphs uniform, Flonne was awash in blue and white. "I'm so happy for all of you getting married; marriage is the ultimate display of love! I love love," Flonne giggled and again rested against her double.

Seeing those two together was so sugary sweet that Sasami felt nauseated by it. "I think I'll go check on my sister and see how she's getting along with Urd-san," Sasami quickly got up and strafed down the hall. She could hear those two angelic idiots babbling about flowers and dresses, and more and more Sasami thought that those two were the real soul mates. Passing by a door marked 'Skuld's Lab', Sasami could hear Mihoshi asking questions followed by an explosion and a young girl's cry…always a good sign when Mihoshi broke technology.

"This just isn't going to end well…how can it?" Sasami asked her inner self. Tsunami wasn't paying attention however, as Tsunami was ethereally Peorth and Washu to learn how to better cultivate roses. "I hope Shin-chan is doing better with those guys," but what guys did together was often a lot easier than women. Video games, sports, stupidity, and crass jokes would be heaven to this little get together. "Ayeka, Urd-san how are you two doing?" Sasami asked as she stepped out onto the veranda.

A defining crack filled the air as a whip struck the ground with a mighty plume of dust. "See? If you keep your wrist taught until the last moment you get a great deal more control," Ayeka replied after the whip crack. Holding out the end of the whip to her partner, Ayeka was thankfully wearing her traditional Jurian robes. "Now you try Urd," Ayeka requested and took a step out of the danger zone.

"This has a nice heft to it, I'll give you credit for craftsmanship," Urd wrapped her fingers around the rod. With a flick of her wrist she wrote her name in the ground with the thick ropy implement of S&M goodness. "Wow you're right! I could never get my name to show this good before!" Urd gushed as she examined her handiwork. "How well does this work with other tools?" she handed the whip back to its owner.

Sasami was glad she wasn't carrying anything as she'd have dropped it. Spying two bottles of open sake that appeared to be half gone. Just leave it to her sister to find the other woman with a whip fetish among her sister-wives. Having never really enjoyed the traditional role as Ayeka did, Sasami had only paid head service to the '_Ojousama_ to Oyobi' training. "Sorry to interrupt, but have you seen m-mommy around anywhere Ayeka?" Sasami's need to pull her pigtails out was growing at a momentous speed.

Staggering over to the veranda, Ayeka stooped down and gathered her bottle. "Oh Sasami-chan did you come to learn from big-sister how to keep that man of yours on a leash?" Ayeka slurred as her complexion took on the red hue of being blitzed. Leaning against a wooden support beam, "As for mother, I saw her go off with Hild and Naga somewhere deeper in the house. Now come over here and give your sister a hug!" Ayeka dropped the bottle back down and with outstretched arms lunged for Sasami.

Dodging the clumsy attempted grope, Sasami wandered into the garden to avoid having to smell the brewery that was her sister. "That's fine, Ayeka, I see you and Urd-san are sharing…your hobbies. I'll leave you to it if you…EEP!" Sasami squealed. A pair of arms snuck in under her own and she felt hands pressing against the back of her head, she'd been sucker trapped. "Urd-san!" Sasami yelped at her captor.

Pulling Sasami's head in closer, Urd whispered playfully into the girl's ear, "Ah my lil first wife doesn't want to play with her sister? You're never going to survive Bell at this rate. But that just leaves more Shin-chan for lil ol' me," Urd blew into Sasami's ear as she grinded against her prisoner's back. "Oh you do have a nice little body though," Urd's face was just as red as Ayeka. "Ayeka-chan come get your lil sister before I eat her right up," Urd launched the floundering princess right at Ayeka.

That's it, no more booze for these two! At least not at the wedding, Urd's status as wife be damned, Sasami was not going to get molested by family at her own damn wedding. Her body stumbling forward to fast to stop, Sasami just accepted her fate and crashed into Ayeka's outstretched arms. Feeling Ayeka's clumsy embrace, Sasami reciprocated it in kind. "Is that enough for now, Ayeka?" Sasami pushed back to see a tear streaked Ayeka staring back at her.

Bawling like a little girl, Ayeka did not improve her image of being a prim and proper woman. "My little sister is getting married! I'm so happy! And with such a lovely sister-wife to make up for your failing at whip-craft! I love you Sasami! And now we don't have to worry about you stealing Ten-chan from us?" Ayeka sobbed joyously. Lifting Sasami into the air, proving she was her mother's daughter, Ayeka waved Sasami around like a doll.

Patting Ayeka's arm, Urd sipped her sake with a sultry grin. "Well now I have a great sister-in-law to help me improve the craft," Urd took another crack with the whip and shuddered. "Now put that lil crumpet down so we can get back to business. Not much time left to practice before the big game," Urd sashayed back to the open garden with the implement of Shinji's pain trailing behind her.

Literally dropping Sasami, Ayeka skipped right along besides Urd. "What a lovely idea, you have to keep your man under thumb or they might go out and pay attention to blonds…stupid Mihoshi getting Ten-chan's child first," Ayeka snagged her bottle by the neck and took a mighty swig.

Back away slowly…very slowly. Show no sudden movements, don't make a sound, and maybe you'll survive this Sasami's mind told her. Walking backwards into the house, Sasami did see twin blasts of streaming red death flying into the sky followed by Asuka and Ryoko's laughter, this was indeed a very bad idea. "Maybe I should follow Ayeka's lead and get plastered, might make this more enjoyable," Sasami thought for a moment before squashing that idea. If she got drunk, things would only explode faster.

All around her she could hear chatter that was leading to what she believed would be the undoing of mankind. Sure it sounded happy right now, but one miss placed comment from Etna to Tokimi could result in a whole in Earth. "Ayeka said mother was with the other mom's somewhere inside…" Sasami could only hope that the more mature women were having a more civilized conversation. That would sooth her frenzied nerves, it had to!

Wandering deeper into the shrine, Sasami saw the named plaques on the doors, and when she found 'Urd's Laboratory' thought she heard a voice. It wasn't a word, more of a groan, but Sasami did recognize it as her mother's. "They're playing a game or something and mom is losing, that's right," Sasami nodded to herself as she gripped the door. A moment of perfect foresight, Sasami knew not to open the door, knew to ignore that part of the house and run screaming into the afternoon and never look back.

Then it passed and she slid the door open. "Mommy how are you getting along with…" Sasami's brain died as she stepped in on the mothers. "I-I-I.." Sasami daintily babbled as she walked in on the mound of mothers in a very unexpected, and very private, exchange of bonding. "Excuse me!" Sasami back peddled as the moans of passion continued to erupt from the women.

Calling out weakly, her body nearly at its limit, Misaki tried, "The demons have such a wonderful way of getting to know one another…come join us Sasami-chan! Oh Hild that spot is still tender!" Misaki batted at the CEO of hell.

Door shut, eyes shut, Sasami had enough it was time to find the nearest bottle of intoxicant and make it disappear. Walking back to Flonne and Belldandy however, Sasami heard more things she wished had never been uttered by a living creature.

"No you're wrong Flonne-san! Missionary is the ultimate showing of acceptance to your beloved!" Belldandy was standing by an upturned table staring angrily at an equally upset Flonne. "Don't you see how exposing yourself so openly to your other half is superior?" Belldandy's hand went to her chest as she lowered her head as if in prayer.

Stomping her foot, coincidentally smashing a teacup, Flonne's eyes were alight with inner fire. "Doggy is better! By not looking at them you open yourself open to trusting them! But I hardly suspect a goddess to know about an angel's love," Flonne sneered at the doe eyed Belldandy.

"And I would never expect a FALLEN angel to know about spiritual love, I believe you've confused lust with love, dear," Belldandy fired back as she stepped closer to Flonne, an odd glazed look fell over Belldandy's features. "Sorry dear, but I think you need to be shown just how much Holy Bell and I can love," Bell's hand clenched at her heart as her angel erupted from her back.

"You call that a fireball? I can make a better one in my sleep little girl!" Ryoko's voice boomed out from above the shrine.

Peorth rushing down the hall way screeching, "Keep that horrible little troll away from me and Gorgeous Rose!" The skimping leather flaps and bells of Peorth's costume jingled as she ran frantically from an adult Washu adorned in a surgical mask.

Ah, finally this was when it became good, Sasami thought. Grabbing a bottle of vodka from the table of snacks and drinks, Sasami found a nice seat and plopped down. Not surprised when everybody save the orgy of mothers and the twin dominatrix started fighting, Sasami popped the top poured equal booze to fruit punch and let oblivion wash over her as the fireworks started.

X- Hild and Naga would be very strange people to meet –X

Soda in hand, Shinji watched as Tenchi proved to be just as skilled at virtual fighting as he was traditional. "And thus ends Kensuke's reign of terror over us," the lad jest as Kensuke's fighter was trounced and the controller passed to Touji. Sipping his drink, Shinji wondered if the girls' meet up was going as well as his was. A few ego's clashed at the start, namely Keiichi and Tenchi over who had it worse when it came to significant others, but nothing got destroyed.

Switching seats with Touji, Kensuke hunkered down on the couch next to Shinji. "Man your new place is crazy awesome," Kensuke gushed for the fifteenth time that day. "And I was getting tired of playing anyway so I let him win," the look of pure hatred he lanced the back of Tenchi's head with said otherwise.

Grabbing a handful of cashews from the bowl next to the couch, Shinji just popped them into his mouth as he watched Kensuke pout. To be honest the soon to be married pilot was having a hard time concentrating on anything. His mind kept going back to the series of dreams he'd been having the last five nights. They felt so real, so life like, and it made him feel a little bad regarding his fiancés.

"Aida-kun, you shouldn't lie like that. Tenchi-kun said it himself earlier. He plays a lot of games when not training," Keiichi scolded over an adult beverage. "His chores are pretty rough too, something Shinji's going to have to start doing soon I might add," Keiichi reached from his chair and patted Shinji's shoulder. "Welcome to the club, though I think you'll have it worse than both of us," Keiichi and Tenchi shared a look of unbridled fear.

Choosing his character, a traditional kendo fighter, Tenchi leaned back and grabbed his own bottle. "I'll agree with you on that one Keiichi-kun, while we have our own disagreements about which of us have more chores…Shinji-kun is going to be worked to the bone," Tenchi grabbed a bag of chips as he turned back to the game.

Nice and peaceful, at least for now, Shinji enjoyed that. He didn't like referring to his wives as chores, but didn't really want Touji and Kensuke to know his brothers-in-laws secrets. Letting out another sigh as those dreams came back to his mind, Shinji hated how he could remember how they even felt. Dreams weren't supposed to be that way damn it!

"Shin-man! Yo Shin-man you awake?" Kensuke waved his hand in front of Shinji's face. Once the boy jerked, Kensuke pulled back to a more reclined position. "I asked why those maids were all glaring at us when we came in, and who was that bodacious black haired babe in the French maid outfit?" Kensuke scanned behind him hoping just one of them were in the room with them. Sadly no, this was man time.

Setting his can on the table, Shinji popped his back. "That was Attim M-Zack, how you forgot her after winning the pageant is beyond me. And sorry for being distracted, but I have a lot on my mind," he apologized. With the other guys cheering on the battle, Shinji waved Kensuke in close. If he could get at least one other persons opinion on this, maybe he wouldn't feel so dirty. Asking a girl wouldn't work, so this was the optimum time. "Kensuke…have you ever had a dream that felt so real you couldn't tell it was a dream?" he whispered.

Pushing his glasses back up, Kensuke made the 'oh' face. "You had one of 'those' type of dreams didn't ya? Don't worry Shin-man its normal," Kensuke nodded sagely. "So which of your soon to be brides got into your dreams for a little pre-game warm-up?" the geek rubbed his hands together maniacally. "This could really help us stage the final phase of the betting. Almost everybody else has skyrocketed in outcomes, but we can still make some money if we hedge out bets on which bride you dreamt of," greed pervaded every aspect of Kensuke.

Hissing loudly, Shinji found watching Touji get in a surprise combo and win the first round more interesting than continuing the conversation he started. "None of them," he eventually confessed with his head down low. "You know those girls who I study with?" he turned to see Kensuke already scribbling on a piece of paper. "Well it started with Makoto-chan and well it's just so odd," Shinji leaned back as his voice came out wispy.

"I blame the movie Attim and I watched a week ago I guess," Shinji stretched his arms out along the back of the couch. "It was some sci-fi movie about alien abductions, the aliens forced the main characters to…you know…to study them," Shinji found it was easier to talk about it after the dreams themselves and the person listening was more interested in money that any real sexual thrill. "Well these dreams were so real…but it was just like that movie. First night it was Kino-chan and me, then the next Mizuno-chan, Hino, Aino, and lastly Usagi-chan," Shinji couldn't help but use Usagi's first name, the girl's personality made it hard not to. "D-does this make me a pervert or something? I mean here I am about to get married to three women and yet I dream of FIVE others?" he pleaded to Kensuke.

Jotting down the last of Shinji's drivel, Kensuke licked his pen and set it back in his pocket. "With the amount of time you spent with them, man, I'm shocked this hasn't happened earlier," Kensuke said with all seriousness. "And hell, man, it's your subconscious! You can't control that thing! I mean I dream of being eaten by rolls of coins, and you don't see me throwing yen away now do you?" the geek stole another drink of his spiked soda.

Squirming a bit, but feeling leagues better, Shinji's legs rubbed together. "I don't know. I mean I've never had a dream like that in my life! I hardly dream at all that I can remember, but for five days in a row I've had them…and to make matters stranger the day after the girl in question would just blush at me and run off without a word!" Shinji didn't know what to make of that. After Usagi's confession that the group of study-buddies actually felt 'that way' about him made him feel honored and confused.

"You've never had a…living with Misato and now these hotties you've never…" Kensuke just turned back and forth. "I know you guys are listening so weigh in on this," Kensuke asked the other three men in front of the wide-screen television. "As for them avoiding you, maybe they're just nervous about their job applications for this damn house," Kensuke shrugged.

Polishing off Touji's cybernetic samurai, Tenchi dropped the control and spun around. "Yeah we were spying on ya, but no worries Shinji-kun," Tenchi's smile was genuine and caring. "I've had dreams about Misaki and me doing the mattress mambo, and I have NO desire to even see that woman nude let alone see what kind of horror she could make in bed," Tenchi's body broke out in gooseflesh and he rubbed his arms as if all warmth left his body.

"I've Belldandy and now Peorth in my life yet I've had more than one nocturnal vision of your soon to be wife," Keiichi sipped back his bottle with a roguish grin. "Having lived with Urd, I'm not going to lie and say she's demure. That woman is going to chew you up and spit you out and I bet you'll love it. As for this dream business, as long as it isn't somebody you've never met who suddenly shows up in real life, don't worry about it," Keiichi took his turn looking cold.

Tossing the controller away in disgust, Touji hung his head in defeat. "I suck at these damn games," he sulked. Pounding his spiked beverage, Touji's cheeks colored as the booze worked its way though his system. "And I've had a fucking dream of the damn devil, Shin-man. That evil and sexy wench invaded my dreams so you thinking of those…those minx isn't anything to be…to be upset about. Just how you hide the evidence?" he wobbled as he sat.

"Belldandy did the sheets and man she always caught on and asked about it," Keiichi rubbed his nose with an embarrassed hint. "I couldn't imagine how hard it is for you to hide it with Aoi-chan in the same room," Keiichi believed the lie that Aoi had her own bed and didn't sleep in Shinji's.

Letting out a roaring belly laugh, Tenchi pointed his finger at Keiichi as the chuckles escaped. "Having that dainty thing finding your mess is nothing! Try having a quartet of jealous women FIGHT over who gets to clean it up all the while claiming it was them I was dreaming about!" Tenchi's head wobbled as he scooped up his bottle and drained a mighty chunk. "But do tell Shinji-kun, how do those maids take to your sudden zest for giving them work to do?" Tenchi blinked rapidly.

With four sets of eyes on him, Shinji didn't know what to do or say. He didn't really understand what they were talking about. "What mess? Everything is the same as when I went to sleep," he felt as if he missed something vital. All he did was have dreams, nothing else. He just had very vivid, life like dreams, nothing more. Watching the men slowly close in on him, Shinji drank from his own tainted soda. "I know you think I'm fibbing, b-but I'm not. I didn't make the mess you're talking about," he stalled again with another drink.

Slapping Shinji's back hard, pitching the boy forward, Kensuke cracked up with giggles. "Oh man you really are different! Here we thought you were upset cause you were making a stinky mess, and you're just…just to damn pure," Kensuke took his glasses off and cleaned them. "Just going to make the bachelor party all the more fun to corrupt you!" he said with a sigh.

"Speaking of that, I think it's time you tell us who the best man is, Shinji-kun," Keiichi leaned over with anxious excitement. "Morrigan said you'd have an answer for us regarding that, and I'm betting we all want to know…who did you chose?" Keiichi saw the other men nodding in agreement.

The door to the den broke open as the answer to that question jogged in. "Sorry for being late, Shin-chan, but the trains were delayed due to an accident," Utena waved wildly as she vaulted the couch and hugged Shinji from the side. "That tasty maid of yours already got me a drink to catch up to you guys," Utena giggled. "Have to agree though that today is a special occasion so I'll imbibe with the rest of 'the guys'," the lesbian didn't mind playing up the stereotype.

Leaning his head against Utena's shoulder, Shinji didn't have the foggiest about what she was talking about. He wasn't drinking alcohol, he was having a soda that Morrigan gave to him. "Didn't Morrigan tell you guys already? I've always said if I get married Utena-chan is going to be my best man," Shinji felt his faux sister grab his hand and hold it. As normal, her flesh was so warm and safe. "I-if you wanted I'm sure we could get Anthy in the ceremony somehow too," Shinji slurred as his unassuming drink filled brain splurged.

Reaching into her pocket, Utena pulled out her surprise gift for her brother. "I have something for you first, Shin-chan," Utena bounced in her seat with pent up energy. Unfurling Shinji's hand, she dropped five rose signets in his hand. "You always loved our rings so I got Anthy to make you a set with an extra just in case," Utena rubbed her cheek against Shinji's. "My brother is getting married, I'm so happy!" she squealed. "Now lets party!" she quickly switched gears.

The men, other than Shinji of course, looked defeated to lose the best man position to a woman. But after spending several drunken hours playing games with Utena, seeing how the duo of abandoned brother and sister acted with each other had no qualms about it. Those two complimented and completed one another on a way transcending other forms of sibling bonding. They were family, and the men had to accept that. Oh and after Tenchi joked that he could beat her in a duel, Utena put the man down before falling asleep on the couch with her brother.

X- It makes perfect sense to have Utena being the best man…cause…well…she is –X

Throwing a blanket over the sleeping bodies of Utena and Shinji, Misato ruffled the boy's hair before leaving the room. "See I told you they'd all relax better if they had a little nip," Misato said with closed eyes and shaking her head. Why nobody believed her when she suggested they spike the drinks was silly. "And you can see for yourself Kos-Mos that nothing bad happened with Shinji told them about Utena being best man," Misato stuck her tongue out in a show of maturity.

Peeking through the door before shutting it, Attim's scowl marred her looks. "Still those kids are under age, something could have happened," she tugged at her dress with disdain. "I hate this damn thing," she moaned as they quartet made its way down the dimly lit halls. Their feet hardly made a sound on the thick red and black checked carpet. "How can you stand it?" she asked Misato who was clad in the same insufferable ensemble.

Flying just an inch off the ground, Morrigan clicked her tongue. "Misato-baby can stand it because she knows how to have fun. Costume play can really spice things up, but for an armature such as you well…pride gets in the way," Morrigan's head wings fluttered rapidly as the succubus dodged a flying soda can. "Touchy touchy, keep up that attitude and I'll extend the punishment another two days," Morrigan threatened.

"Please put the fangs away you two harpies," Misato joked as she threw open the door to the kitchen. The white tile floor reflected the light perfectly against the hard wood cabinets and lacquered black surfaces. "Oh, in case you were wondering, I got a call from Ritsuko about a police call sent to that temple. Seems a nasty little fight happened, and the mothers' decided to punish the lot of them," Misato fanned herself as she opened the fridge.

Part of her had wanted to be at the women's get together just to see all those different personalities clash. But her strategic mind reminded her that she was human and most of those at the temple were not. Being alive was a lot more fun that watching a brawl that ended with her in many tiny pieces. Missing the punishment, a thirty minute hug, was also good. Misato didn't think Misaki's mind was all there.

Standing under a sunlamp provided for her, Kos-Mos flipped the device on to recharge. "It is not unexpected that putting so many mentally unstable women in a single structure would result in an altercation," Kos-Mos did seem to be enjoying that fact however. Resting against her charging station, Kos-Mos closed her eyes to fully enjoy the sensation.

"Oh poor miss android feels like she's being replaced," Morrigan cooed as she wafted over closer to Kos-Mos. Doing what appeared to be the backstroke in mid-air, the succubus grabbed an apple from a bowl on the center table. "Have to agree though, putting Asuka and her mother in the same place with any thinking creature would likely end in a fight," Morrigan ended with taking a mighty bite from her pilfered fruit.

Hopping up on the counter, Misato hiked her right leg over her left. A year ago, seeing anything like this Misato would have checked herself into the asylum. Now it was common place, so was being with Shinji. "I got a call from the caterer today about the reception," Misato started off and helped herself to an apple as well.

"Saw the note," Attim said simply as she paced the room. Never staying in one spot to long, never keeping her gaze on one woman for a fixed time, Attim reviewed all the other threats equally. "So the last of the delays has been lifted, the wedding will be five days from now," she finally did stop and found examining the reflective tiles very interesting. "You can see my…" she mused softly.

Doing a summersault in the air, ending in a seated position, Morrigan's hand came to her chin. "Took you long enough to realize you've been giving everybody a show when wandering this place. Call it an added benefit of the uniform," she blew a kiss to the aggravated woman. "As for my darling, sorry our darling, Shin-baby's upcoming nuptials, you women will be all held accountable for the post ceremony activities," the succubus landed on one leg holding her left curled up.

Shinji was getting married and not to her, Misato found she didn't really mind. She could and would have as much of his time as she wanted despite not having a ring. Being a part of this newly forged union of all conceivable plains of existence was going to really win her big. Money, power, fame, and affection all for her for time served. Her life hadn't been roses and candy after Second Impact, but now things were changing.

Tossing her core in the garbage can, giving herself three points for the shot, Misato piqued her head to the side. "What are you talking about, Morrigan? We have so many people hired to work that damn reception we shouldn't have to do anything," Misato was genuinely confused. Having read the roster of R.S.V.P.'d guests, Misato feared that the GeoFront wouldn't be big enough to host all of them. But Hild's resource management skills had every amenity covered in spades. "All we have to do is eat, drink, and be merry as Shin-chan gets married," Misato was pleased with her little linguistic joke.

"I concur with Katsuragi," Kos-Mos's droll voice erupted the silence. Stepping out of her cloister, the android was twitching slightly with each movement. "Hild stated that we would not be required to perform any service at the nuptial other than be present," Kos-Mos flexed her arm turning it into her R-Scythe and back.

Groaning Morrigan leapt back into the air and 'laid' on her stomach as she floated. "You humans can never pick up on double meanings of things, or maybe you three are just prudes," Morrigan spun around in the air letting her emerald tresses flail about. "You do realize that you three are concubines, it says so in the documentation you all signed…in the tin can's case had digitally encoded into her matrix," Morrigan poked Kos-Mos in the head with her wing during a flexing.

"Shinji won't make us perform acts on him, demon," Attim's scowl increased as she tried finding some manner to stop broadcasting her color choice. Finally settling on leaning against the cabinets and pushing the skirt together, she sighed. "We are his servants and companions, are employer is Hild though, so unless Shinji suddenly becomes a pervert over night at which point I'm going to blame that trollop Aoi, we don't have to worry about things," she crossed her arms defensively.

OH…oh goodie! Misato got what Morrigan was aiming at, and wondered if Attim was purposefully being dense or if the captain of the guards didn't understand. "Attim its not that we have to worry about Shinji ravishing us in the night, its that we can ravish him. Once he's married and taken his brides…well…we can perform our other duties as stated in our contracts," a smile peaked on Misato's face. Finding Morrigan sharing it, Misato's opinion of the succubus changed slightly.

True to form, Kos-Mos and Attim nearly fell over as their legs went limp. "What?" they chorused and turned to the hovering object of carnal desire. The youngest, mentally and physically, of the group were the last two to cross the finish line of understanding. They shared a moment of combined anxiety and acceptance.

Tossing the last of her apple into the air, Morrigan couldn't help but laugh. "You two were thinking about it eventually right? Shin-baby won't be knocking on your door as the queue will be fairly long I'm guessing. So unless you want to go without you best start thinking of how you want to go about your duties," with a spin Morrigan kicked her descending trash into the bin. "I bet Katsuragi already has a ten step plan going on in her head to make Shin-baby think HE is leading her on, but if you like sleeping alone by all means continue as you have been," with a light bow, Morrigan summoned a circle of flame and teleported out of the room.

Her nose scrunched up at the sulfurous smell from the demonic departure, Misato jumped off the counter. "While Morrigan gave me far too much credit for thinking up a plan, I won't lie and say I haven't considered it," she flinched a bit at being so open about her plans, but Misato was done lying. And why bother lying to her coworkers about a job they'd be sharing…maybe sharing closer than they expected at times. "You have some time to plan and think, but I do believe I'll be contacting that sister of Shinji's to see if I can't crash that little bachelor party she's got planned," Misato giggled at the idea of coming out of a cake in naught but her skin before her beloved pilot.

"Internet, I must consult the internet, surely it will provide," Kos-Mos sped off with paramount to fear etched into her porcelain features. The heavy metallic whirring and clomping of her body could be heard long after the door shut and the mock-human began her attempt to use technology to aid her.

In the kitchen however, Attim was prone. "I teased him about it…we came close to actually doing something after our spar last week. But…to actually…" Attim's eyes glazed over and an eerie smile graced her wonderful complexion. "Yes, yes that would do…bachelors party, yes," Attim giggled more as she phased down through the floor and out of Misato's sight.

"Those two are going to be interesting to watch," the lone major of Nerv stated. Grabbing a beer from the fridge, Misato looked at it and set it back. Taking a bottle of fruit juice instead, Misato vowed to cut down a bit on the booze. "Only five more days till the party really begins, I don't even know if I'm ready," she popped the top off and sampled the beverage. It lacked the kick she was used to, but the flavor was tart as she liked.

Finding a nice seat by the window, Misato gazed out at the cloud hidden half moon. "We've come so far and so fast, it's hard to remember all that happened to us. Enemies became friends, friends to enemies, and now earth is safe, Nerv has no purpose, but I'm not afraid," she took a big drink. Her frilly maid outfit hiked up her legs, looking at her long and toned legs, Misato kicked them playfully in the air. "You're never going to know what hit you, but that's why we care. No ego, selfless to a fault, and so wonderful to tease…who'd have thought you were my ideal," she turned back to the window.

A storm was rolling in, dark and thick clouds. The crackling lightning and thunder quickly followed. "I'm getting superstitious in my age," Misato didn't want to think about ill omens now. It was time to be happy, time to get ready to celebrate, kick back, and feel the oneness she'd longed for ages ago. She'd not be first, second, or third but Misato was aiming for that forth spot. "Stupid fears…nothing is going to happen, not with so many powerful things looking over us…I'm just being stupid," Misato muttered.

But those dark clouds, that storm, and her latent subconscious warned her not to put her guard down. Rubbing at her arms, she felt cold. "Guess I'll turn in for the night myself," she said aloud and headed to her room. Sleep was hard coming that night, and when she did finally drift off, she was assailed with dreams and other ill portends of disaster.

X- A servants job is never done –X

Authors Notes

Lil short on subject matter, but this was more of a humor chapter and setting the stage for the wedding next chapter. Getting everybody in the right frame of mind, playing the game of 'how would they react' and such. I hope ya enjoyed this chapter, and I want to thank you for sticking with this story for so long. It's been such a crazy ride that looking back at it I wonder how I managed to keep this thing going.

I started it when life seemed to hate my very existence. It was my first attempt at a story not fully scripted out, more on the cuff so to speak. A lot of the ideas and arcs actually coming from a pre-reader of mine that has gone off to due bigger and better things with his life, and I'm happy for him. But for the last few years…man it has been years, this story has seen a drastic change in my life. From starving to death in a tiny studio to me having a good job and putting on a lil extra weight.

I know it could be better, plot holes abound, but this has always been a labor of humor and love to anime and manga. I've added just about every trope and cliché in it, but it was done out of admiration of the hobby I've had for over a decade now.

That being said, I want to thank not only all my readers, but all the other writers out there. If you've ever dabbled in writing fanfiction or any writing you know how hard this can be at times. Worrying and fretting how people will react to what we've spent so much time and effort into. Yet we keep trying, keep striving to improve (currently I'm trying to improve my dialogue), and keep putting out efforts out for no payment other than the occasional review. Those reviews are our life's blood in writing, so thanks to all of you who do take the time to say something. Good, bad, or simply 'I've read this' means a lot to us writers.

This has gone on a lot longer than my normal post story notes, but I'll close briefly here. Again thanks for the years of supporting me, you've all seen me change my style, hope to get better, and being there when I've stumbled…and I've stumbled a lot. Thank you all for your support, your spending your free time, and your suggestions.

With much appreciation

Zentrodie.


	50. All good things

Standard Disclaimer

Ugh felt horrid since Friday till today, but I'll do what I can with this. Been a crazy kind of month so far, and November is just half over. Hope things smooth out at work, stupid stress probably lead to my bout of internal hemorrhaging. Well its time for some things that some of you have been waiting for…

X-X

What We Make of It

Chapter 50 – Wedding Bells

Or

Closing Bells

Adjusting his collared shirt, Shinji frowned at his reflection in the mirror. A bachelor's party, did he really need to have one? His male friends and family were all about the idea of going out on Morrigan's planned excursion, hell Utena was even looking forward to it. So why was he nervous about it, he trusted Morrigan to not do something to much. At least he had his own plan of attack for his marriage party. Having looked up traditions, he found he had to get something for the members of his half of the party.

It took some finagling for a good majority of them, but Shinji was proud of what he was able to accomplish for his obligations. When he told them he just hoped they took it the way he intended them to. Finishing his hair styling, more combing out the mess Misato beset upon him, he walked out the door to find he was the last member to finish prep work. "Sorry if I kept you all waiting," he apologized.

Pinning a lapel on his collar, Morrigan kissed his cheek playfully. "No worries hun, I was just filling your guests in on how things are going to go today. Oh and don't take that pin off, it's important," Morrigan gestured to the other members of the group. Touji, Kensuke, Utena, Keiichi, and Tenchi all had similar pins on. The small emerald pin's radiated a faint glow that could have been misconstrued as just catching the light, but in the darkened room it was evident they were magic.

Appearing uncomfortable in the semi-formal clothing he was wearing, Touji tugged on his sleeve. "So uh, you never did tell us where we were going. And since a lot of us are under age how much fun can this be if we're going someplace?" he whined. Following behind Shinji and Morrigan, the group headed to the front door of Hild's mansion. "If we stayed here we could have a real kicking party," he sounded as desperate as any teenager wanting to see nubile flesh could.

"You'll never have a girlfriend if you keep coming off like a perv, Suza-chan," Utena joked as she roped Touji's neck with her left arm. Giving Shinji a small boot to the butt, Utena giggled, "Stop dragging your feet brother, we've a party to enjoy and you're the man of the hour. Oh and Anthy said she'd keep an eye on that hellion of yours," a whimsical quality invaded Utena's speech once her lover's name was mentioned.

Grasping the handle of the door, Shinji took a deep breath, whatever was going to happen he'd not be alone for it. "I'll have to thank her for that and the rings when I see her tomorrow," he recounted. They really were the perfect rings for the occasion. Utena and Anthy had overcome so much to form their bond, and their rings symbolized that. It was something Shinji always envied and found beautiful. Now he'd have his own set of rings. "You all ready to go?" he turned back to the group.

On his phone, Kensuke's face paled, "You can't be serious! Have you authenticated the disk? Really? That's…I don't have words for it! We still made a mint but she…that's almost cheating!" Kensuke hung up the phone and gave Shinji a queer glance. "You have some explaining to do, but it can wait. I want to forget what I just heard," Kensuke shoved the tiny plastic device into his pocket furiously.

"Still don't know why we're doing this so early," Tenchi mentioned out of hand. "It's mid morning, not the best time to have a party I'd think," he too appeared uncomfortable in clothing. "But if you're so sure this is the best way to go about it…I'll just have to go with the flow," he shrugged with an easy going smile of acceptance.

Tittering, her head wings flapped happily, Morrigan just sauntered to the door. "Oh trust me, where we're going it's the perfect time for the little bash I set up," she blew a kiss to the older men in the group. Pushing the door open, Morrigan ceremoniously kissed each attendees cheek and pushed them through the door. When it was Keiichi's turn, she just patted him with her fingers, and followed behind. Giggling again at the shock and gasps she heard she informed them of what just happened. "Welcome to Las Vegas my dear party goers, and remember what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas," she bowed quickly.

Stepping out of the alley they teleported into, Shinji gazed up at the now night sky that was perforated with electric lights from the casino's and clubs. "B-but Mo-chan we don't know English!" he slipped with his formalities. Over the weeks he felt the yearning in his heart for his own personal succubus growing and growing, until it overflowed. He called her 'Mo-chan' once two days ago and she almost sucked his tongue out of his mouth as she reciprocated. "I can hardly read…wait…" Shinji gasped as he found he could read the signs clearly and understood them.

"Holy shit! We're really in America and…why is everybody speaking in Japanese?" Touji twirled around like an overwhelmed tourist. Nearly bouncing into a street crier, a very attractive blond, Touji's face burnt a healthy crimson at seeing her amble yet scantly clad bust. "This-this is awesome!" he roared.

Gently, and it is implied hard, Morrigan slapped the back of Touji's head to calm him down. "The gems I insisted you wear are translating things for you, so now you know why you need to keep them on," she informed. Linking her arm with Shinji, she nuzzled against her toy. "No more slip ups from you Shin-baby or I'll break you in, but I promised Hild I wouldn't," she whispered. Turning to the still awestruck group, "Let us go to our club were I've arranged some special entertainment for us all."

Grabbing Shinji's other arm, Utena's expression turned from wonder to defensive. "This place is dangerous for tourist, don't leave our side Shinji," she said with full conviction. Her eyes wandered from caller to caller, a few women handed her a card for 'special services' and her face scrunched up. "Why is everybody being so forthcoming with offering us things we should be to young for? I know a call-girl when I see one, so why did she give me a," she read the card and dropped it as if it were on fire, "ew…free hand job."

His face about to burst into flames, Tenchi caught up to the group, his hand loaded with cards. "This is a little much, these women really like to solicited their clubs," he pocketed the offerings of free booze and chips as mementos. Pointing at the large neon sign of the 'One Night Stand' he gasped, "We're going there? That's a strip club isn't it? They'll never let Shinji and his friends in!"

Scowling a trifle, Morrigan's forehead had a prominent vein protruding. "You think to little of me, humans. The gems make you look like your older selves, and the club has been reserved for me for a hefty price. So all you have to worry about is having fun, and making sure you don't get conned out of a kidney," she eyed Touji and Kensuke specifically. "You two stay with one of us at all times, Shin-baby isn't leaving my sight, but you two could run off and get hurt if not careful," she ran a finger under Kensuke's chin nearly making him collapse.

Walking through the large double doors, a red-head and brunette on either side winked at him as he passed them, Shinji was amazed at the interior. A large bar at the back, a walkway with two offshoot platforms with poles featured dancers that boggled the mind with their skills and figures. It was dark, black-lights were in use, but the music was good, the other thing of notice was that aside the dancers, servers, and the bartender it was empty.

Feeling Morrigan release her hold, and grab his shoulders, Shinji tensed up. "Y-you went overboard on this Morrigan-c…san," he corrected himself at her request. Morrigan, Shinji noticed, was as unfamiliar with genuine affection as he used to be. It melted his heart to see her blush, her outer shell of 'sex personified' melted away to her true personality. Still flirty but toned down and more honest, he alone saw it. His body propelled towards the main stage, Shinji fidgeted a bit more as he was placed at the seat at the head of the platform, "H-here?"

"Where else would the man of the hour sit?" Keiichi chuckled as he took the chair two down from Shinji. A good view of both the main and right platform, Keiichi let out a low whistle as the Brazilian dancer continued to dance suggestively. "I'm glad Bell is off with her sisters and the other girls from Nekomi or I'd be dead right now," he nodded at his own words.

Ah yes the bachelorette parties, how could Shinji forget about those. It was funny how quickly his mind went to fear to the point he forgot that he wasn't alone in the endeavor. Sasami was off with her sister, Ryoko, Mihoshi, Washu, and Tokimi doing god knows what, though he half suspected it'd end up involving whips. Urd had a planned meeting with her sisters, mother, Misato, and the girls they knew from the University. The last group, Shinji wanted to know the least about in fear his brain would melt. Whatever Asuka, Etna, Flonne, Naga, and Anthy were going to do was best left to them.

"What would you like to drink, Shinji-sama?" a timid voice interrupted Shinji's daydream of the girls' parties.

Shaking his head clear, Shinji's jaw dropped as he turned to the question. Clad in a very revealing red leather mini-skirt and tube-top, complete with heart shaped whole to show her cleavage, Aoi stood abashed and unafraid. "A-A-Aoi-chan! What are you…" doing here? Wearing? Thinking? All came to mind as potential questions, yet Shinji couldn't finish his statement. His mind was officially jilted at seeing the traditionally kimono-clad girl in one of the most outrageous costumes ever.

"He'll have a rum and coke, as will the two boys, I'll have a shot of tequila and a Long Island Ice tea and one for Utena-chan here, and get those two whatever they want," Morrigan flicked her wrist at Keiichi and Tenchi whore were engrossed in the show. Manually turning Shinji's head away from the departing Aoi back to her, Morrigan cooed "Like my first little gift for you? Aoi-chan is my star pupil you see, and she so wanted to be part of this little party. Few others that you'll see later on too begged for the chance," she looked down at the radar and her face blanched, "Nothing yet! I'll have to up the odds."

Drinks in hand, Kensuke took a mighty swig, "Wow you can't taste the booze at all in this. American bartenders know how to make a good drink," he said as if he drank a lot. His head spun from platform to platform. The three main platforms each had a very tasty crumpet doing her job very well. "Thank you for bringing me here Shinji, even if you cheated," he said cryptically.

Eyes on the stage, Utena didn't appear to be entertained, though Shinji could tell it was an act and she was very much enjoying things, the duelist sipped her drink. "Don't drink to much, little bro, unless you want to be carried out of here, and maybe find yourself waking up in bed with one of those women," she slapped his back lightly. Her cheeks going flush, "How much alcohol is in this? I don't drink very often."

Taking her shot first, Morrigan's wings extended fully as an afterthought. "Oh more than enough," she answered. Her head bouncing with the music, the succubus just leaned lightly against the male to her side. "Enjoying the evening so far my little puppy?" she whispered as her voice was almost drowned out by the other cheering men. "They are it seems," she appended.

Had he not have had those odd dreams for the last two weeks, Shinji would have likely broke down into a pile of mush. Odd how those dreams of his study group, two dreams apiece, helped acclimate him to things. "I'm happy as long as they're happy," he sipped his drink slowly. "I was so nervous about this, but now I'm having fun," he grinned. It was nice to spend time with 'the guys' on occasion, even if one of the guys was a woman and another a succubus.

It wasn't a lie either, Shinji took a great deal of joy in watching his buddies and soon-to be-family enjoying themselves. Funnier still was how Utena tried to NOT look interested she was enjoying the show far more than he was. For a full hour the group drank heartily, feasted upon delicacies, and enjoyed strangers on stage doing things their trained bodies could only make minds boggle at. As the current act, twin red heads that engaged in a mirror dance, bowed and waved at the group, Shinji cleared his throat to get their attention.

"Wh-while we wait for the next act, I wanted…wanted to give you guys your…gifts now," Shinji slurred as his third rum and coke was plying on his brain. With Utena's arm around his waist steadying him, he knew where to start. "I-I'll start with my dear sister, not bound by blood, but I love you more than if we were truly siblings," he smiled at her as she teared up herself. "It bothered me…that the g-government wouldn't let you and Anthy get married so…I had Misaki apply pressure. Same sex marriage will be legalized in under a week or the Jurain embassy will be moved to Germany," he was proud of that one.

Whatever Shinji was expecting as Utena's reaction, it was likely far from reality. The pink haired warrior got to her feet, literally picked Shinji out of his seat, and hugged the shit out of him. Swaying back and fourth, his legs nearly hitting Morrigan and Kensuke as she gyrated, she spun around in a circle of pure delight. "I can't thank you enough, brother, neither can countless other couples," she gushed as she finally set him down. Wobbling on unsteady legs, she crashed into her seat and followed it up by finishing her mason jar of booze.

Feeling the urge to vomit come and go, Shinji's vision swam. But he had things to do, as the more he drank the more tired he became, he had to act fast or he might miss his chance to get what he wanted accomplished. Reaching into his pocket he pulled out two watch like devices, "Keiichi, Tenchi I asked Washu to make these for you. T-teleporters to a sub-dimension that has a bed, television, and other amenities so you can have some p-private time without being bothered," he extended the devices to the two males.

Each grabbed them instantaneously and slapped them on without a second thought. "Finally I can sleep again/Finally some peace and quiet!" they chorused and hugged each other. "Love them, but some times…" the started crying in between drinks.

Handing Kensuke a slip of paper, Shinji had to admit the bespeckled boy was the hardest to get something for. "Misato authorized you access to the Magi, here are the pass-codes, and Touji…" Shinji burped. "Tsunami-chan has healed everything with Mari-chan and Nerv took care of the back-bills," Shinji confessed sheepishly. Sure Mari hadn't been hurt bad, but Tsunami found several key genetic defects that could have lead to a very short life…and fixed them

"Thanks Shin-man, thanks" Kensuke would have said more, but he fell out of his chair unconscious.

Taking Shinji's hand, Touji gave it three mighty shakes before breaking down and hugging the boy. "Dude, you…you do get what you deserve, you better get what you deserve in life or…" he blubbered. Taking his seat again, a dopy smile on his face, Touji rearranged Kensuke so the geek wouldn't have any stiff joints come morning.

"Now that that is out of the way, are we ready for the main attraction?" Morrigan tickled Shinji under his chin to get his attention. Gesturing to the stage as three spot lights turned on to each platform, "May I present a lot of word on my part, "Never Expect Radiant Visions."

The lights dimmed and three women stepped out from behind their respective curtains. Utena was instantly focused on the center stage, and Shinji was as well. Face covered with a purple satin cloth, the woman was the most clothed of the three, but her movements were poetry in motion. Even her walking was almost a dance, as she strolled to her pole and performed. To Shinji's right, a block with a blue cloth covering her face, moved with an elegance and poise that struck a cord. The final woman had on a red cloth and torn overalls.

For thirty minutes the trio moved in suggestive and alluring ways, nothing dirty but very stimulating. The woman on the front stage, however…she was obviously focused on Shinji. Beckoning to him, she'd crawl to the edge of the stage, her foot pressed against Shinji's chest then she'd arch her back and sent Touji and Keiichi into fits. If Shinji hadn't had a hand on her arm, Utena might have made a move for the stage.

When it ended…and the masks removed, Shinji was hit with a wanting so profound it almost scared him. "A-Attim," he mouthed as the woman removed her scarf.

Attim, Shion, and Ritsuko bowed and jumped off the stage to judge their results. Utena charged Attim again, only to trip and fall into the woman, head nestled in the uncanny valley, the duelist of the roses found nappy time a good thing to have. "They all worked so hard training for this and their other duties, Shin-baby, make good use of that," Morrigan finally said as the embarrassed women carried Kensuke, Touji, and Utena away to the rented sleeping quarters.

"Not to interrupt, hell TO interrupt, I have my gift for ya my boy," Washu forcibly pushed Morrigan and Shinji apart. "As those unattached are now gone, I think its best you view this now, and don't worry, I'll split it with you," Washu chuckled, looking just as drunk as the rest. Handing Shinji a DVD and a portable player, she smacked Morrigan on the ass, "You're not the only one that knows how to party bat-head!" and with that Washu cackled and teleported away.

Rubbing at his drooping eyes, Keiichi asked, "What is it? All it says is 'Space Adventure' that a movie?" Setting up the player, he took the DVD and set it in.

Letting out a mighty yawn, Tenchi just laughed, "If it came from Washu we can only guess. It could be anything from a horror movie to…well let's just say Washu likes to play jokes." A cold shiver ran down Tenchi's back as memories assaulted him.

Hitting play on the remote, Shinji turned to Morrigan with a quizzical look. "You didn't have anything to do with this?" he didn't like that title. It was the name of the movie that Attim and he watched that that fired off those odd dreams. As the title screen, exactly the same as the movie from before, melted away Shinji spat out his current drink. It was…his dreams…video taped and in full view. Staring down at his crotch, back at the screen, Shinji nearly fainted. It had been real, that's why it felt so real.

Oddly all four of the drunken party goes weren't repulsed, they focused and the two guys turned to Shinji with newfound respect. With each girl popping up and saying how she loved Shinji and agreed to the show as long as Shinji wanted it…well…the lad couldn't fault them. But that meant…he wasn't a…that he had…with all five of them?

And that ladies and gentlemen is where Shinji passed out into Morrigan's arms.

X- So Washu won the bet by staging a good ol' fashion porno –X

So it was finally the day, he was getting married to three…maybe four if she wanted…women today. Not many men, hell hardly any, men could say they were as blessed as he was about to be. So why couldn't Shinji stop worrying. He didn't feel dirty for his new knowledge about himself and his study group that now went beyond simple friends. It was that stupid dream from over a month again.

"Stupid ties, why must you confound me at every turn?" the frazzled boy again tried to tie the stupid cloth correctly. The groomsmen were all ready, he could only assume Utena was fine with the other girls, but he couldn't finish the stupid tie. "Great I'm going to be late for my own wedding because I can't tie this stupid thing!" he took the red silk tie off and chucked it at the door. Sitting on a provided chair, Shinji sulked, then jumped as a clothed hand trailed down his spine.

Moving to the chair across from his, Rei held the tie out for him. "I could affix it for you, if you are having issues," she said in her classic deadpan manner. "If you are wondering, the others are all ready, and the party with Sasami's family went well," a small hint of red adorned the albino's face. "It was my first encounter with male dancers, Ryoko-kun nearly tore his clothing off," Rei tilted her head to the side as she went about fixing Shinji's tie.

His breath stopped as he saw her dress, it was pretty, gorgeous in fact and she in it, but it was the same thing from his dream. "I-I wouldn't have though otherwise for a party with those people at it. I'm surprised Mihoshi-san didn't do something strange," he hadn't spent much time with Sasami's family, but Mihoshi stuck out like a sore thumb. He had to believe some god/goddess of luck followed her wherever she went.

"Aside from eating most of the desserts, Mihoshi-kun did attempt to dance with the men. When one asked for her phone number she laughed, smacked him on the back, and sent the man through a wall," Rei nodded as she finished her task that Shinji couldn't. "I do believe that completes your dressing. Are you ready to head out and begin the ceremony?" she asked getting to her feet. She was stopped from her egress as Shinji grabbed her arm, "I-Ikari-kun?"

"Shinji, Rei-chan, you can still call me Shinji," he corrected the girl. He had feared this, more from Rei than anybody else. So much had happened to this girl since he met her ages ago, that he feared she regress if she feared he was gone. "I…I have another ring…I wanted to ask…do…will you merry me?" he asked getting down on one knee. She had entered his heart before anybody else did, her quirky yet adorable nature won him over. Despite her personality shifting from reading material, he could think of nothing bad of the girl. "I know it's sudden, and you likely wouldn't want to be part of this oddity that's…"

Shutting the foolish boy up with a kiss, Rei pulled back with a small smile on her face. "I promised Sasami-chan that I would wait at least a day, if you were willing to have me," she said softly. Helping Shinji off the ground, Rei hugged his arm as they walked. "Reality, I believe I like it here now," she said to herself but loud enough for Shinji to hear. "I can read whatever I wish now, and remain myself, and I thank you for waiting for me," she slowed her walk, her dress catching on various objects as they walked.

The spare ring felt heavy in his hand, but Shinji found the strength to put it back in his pocket. "I'm proud of you, Rei-chan. It took strength to fight such a thing, and I'm glad I could have been a small part of that," he felt her heat against his side. So many practice rehearsals, rituals, and ceremonies had brought them all to this precipice, and it was time to take the plunge. Goodbye single life and hello tax write offs.

X- Here comes the brides all decked in…a lot of colors –X

It was going like clockwork, no snags at all for the first of three ceremonies. Shinji felt so relived that his fears were a moot point, no gunfire, no explosions. All that was left was for the priest to say the last part, he kiss his first bride, and do it two more times. Sure the honeymoon would be very awkward, his mother has sprung for a Hawaiian resort for the four of them, but he found his initial fear of intimacy gone thanks to Washu's gift.

"I now pronounce you…" Kozo started saying. As the leader of Nerv now, he was fully qualified to oversee the ceremony, and the man had expressed great interest in it. As he opened his mouth to officially welcome the couple into holy 'god why did I every agree to spending the rest of my life with you' all hell broke loose.

Sasami slumped over, complements to a blow to the back of the head from a blackjack shot out of a gun. Walls exploded inward, the carefully constructed chapel breaking apart and upending pews as hunks of plaster fell on them. Gendo had made his entrance, followed by his stolen army of genetically altered dummy plug vessels stolen from Seele. "I object to this farce! And my curse will help me see it through!" the man bellowed as the attack began in earnest.

Legions of modified angelic human hybrids rushed the crowd as a defensive line formed to protect the defenseless. Gendo made his way through the crowd with the modified Tabris's acting as his elite guard, not that he needed it. With the smoke, fire, confusion, and fighting nobody noticed a mere man among monsters walking through the crowds. Finding his way to the alter, gun in hand, he pointed it at his son. "Sold my soul for this, spawn, a curse to costly but secret that it took all I had to give. It was worth it," he smiled and back handed his son to the ground.

His visions came screaming back at him. Shinji knew how this was going to play out, knew that it was his life or Rei's. Spotting the girl moving, Shinji couldn't think of anything else he could do. If he brought attention to Rei, she'd be targeted, if he didn't, she'd still get found as she got closer.

Acting his part, and in accordance to his own desires, Shinji did what he knew he had to. "Man and wife," he finished and kissed Sasami's unconscious lips. Getting to his feet, he took in all the carnage, seared it into his mind and soul. He didn't need to talk to his father, no the crazed look on the man's face and the memories of the dream were enough. Gendo had no sane motive for his actions, and Shinji didn't want to hear it anyway. His loved ones were in danger, some already hurt. Utena was unconscious and bleeding from a head wound a chuck of wall caused.

"No pleading, no begging for you life? And here I had you figured to be pissing your pants and sacrificing all those others for your own good," Gendo giggled and fired his assault rifle over Shinji's shoulder. The gunfire was lost amid the other shots being launched from all around. "Maybe if I pick one off, somebody you care for, I'll get the satisfaction I deserve from this," the man spun on his heels, just like in the dream.

Now or never, her or him…well that was an easy question to ask. Shinji found his body sprinting full on towards the inevitable. But, his mind screamed out, but that doesn't save anybody! It would prolong things yes, but Gendo was still there and his army of freaks! But he had to save Rei, he had to save them all! Somehow this man that used to be his father found a way to strike that could very will succeed. His most powerful allies were crippled due to the presence of frail human life, which prevented them from all out attacking.

The shot, the fall, Shinji's mind his very essence pleaded to stop this madness. Rei's face hovered over his, his hand trailed her crying visage. _No! It can't end this way! I can't leave them! NO! _His vision darkened, blacker…blacker…blacker…he vaguely heard a horrified scream as Gendo was separated into three sections compliments of Kos-Mos's R-Scythe and Morrigan's blade wings cutting him into top, middle, and lower extremities. But that didn't stop the assault, those poor creatures…blacker…blacker…whiteness.

X- Oh shit son! All hells about to break loose –X

Life, fate, or even existence was just one big terrible bastard in Ayanami Rei's opinion. Finally, after great suffering, trials, and tribulations she had reached the finish line with all its promised glory and awesomeness. Now, after she had just been proposed to by the one man she wanted to be with, she was privy to his execution at the hands of his father. Hell she couldn't even get revenge on the bastard as he had been thirded not twenty seconds after the act!

All around her, Rei could hear struggle, strife, and for a few that saw what happened incalculable grieving. But what could she do or say, nothing would have been enough, so she kept it in. It would have been better if she had remained broken, than suffer this fate. When her mind was filled with holes that only manga and anime could fix, all she would have had to do was read a funny one and Shinji's cooling body would have been a joke.

Katsuragi's shriek overshadowed the noise for a moment, she must have seen the real purpose now, Rei ventured. Holding her love's head, a trickle of blood dribbling down his chin, Rei licked her thumb and cleaned it off. The rest of his body was a bloody mess, thanks to the bullet meant for her that he took. Oh yeah, that's right. Her attempt at saving him actually doomed him didn't it? Another reason her freedom of thought was a curse.

"I hate you…I hate you for leaving me," she cried as she smashed her small fists against his chest. Blood splattered her dress, but hell if she cared she was sitting in it anyway. Collapsing against his body, Rei could still feel the heat from the fluid, "I love you…don't go," she pleaded. Then she heard it…his heart.

It was beating, impossibly so, yet it was beating despite the fact he should be dead.

More sounds of mornings giving up the battle against the angelic threat, what was the point when what you wanted was already gone. Yet still Rei heard that tiny thump, but it wasn't so tiny anymore, it was growing louder, stronger, and without any real reason to, Rei just assumed she was going crazy. Not hard to imagine having been half way there already.

When she felt his arms grasp her small frame, Rei gasped and turned up to see his face. It was not a face she immediately recognized! Those soft blue eyes she found so calming were gone, as were the whites of his eyes. Pure golden light poured out of his eye sockets as the boy smiled at her, yet it was an alien smile, gone was the personality she had come to love. This wasn't the Shinji she knew, yet she felt such warmth and tenderness from him as he gently freed himself from under her.

Rei witness first hand the events as the creature that was Ikari Shinji got to his feet and started floating. "S-Shin-chan?" she called after him but was not heard or not cared for.

Everything seemed to stop in that instant. Both of the Shinji creature's arms extended outward. "This is not to be," the words were filled with power and emanated through the room like a wave. As if it were conducting and orchestra, the being's hands wafted to and fro pointing at man, woman, and beast. Walls mended, wounds were healed, and damage rendered moot. The creatures, all save one that reverted to the body of a fourteen year old male, vanished in puffs of gold smoke. "Tabris is innocent of this crime forced upon him, treat him well," the voice commended as it clicked it's fingers and clothed the boy.

As more people came too, or were freed of their fight, they all still noticed the blood flowing out of the creature bathed in golden light. Washu, Tokimi, and Kanako bowed their heads to the ground and Rei could hear them utter, "Father!"

"Rise my daughters, I was never one to wish for worship. As such I took a human body as three of you have," the creature waved at his children. "My time is short, peace be upon you," and with his statement stated drifting back to the ground. "Young one, know he…I loved you dear," it said as he held out to Rei's face again.

"Loved! You mean you can't…that you won't…after healing all of them what about…yourself?" Rei didn't understand! She had just witnessed a miracle! The creator of the three goddess of creation had righted everything that was wronged, even going so far as the patch Gendo back together, now held down by Misato at gunpoint. "W-what will become of you?" she tugged on the now ruined tuxedo's inner white dress shirt.

X- And we have our climax! –X

"Hm…do I go for the 'reset time' bit and have Shinji back at chapter one coming to town, or do I have him die," the writer asked himself as he typed the final chapter of his oddity of a story. His lazy cat just flicked her tail on the keyboard as he paused to consider how to officially end the story proper.

Leaning back in his chair, he paused to gaze at his myriad of wallscrolls, currently Vandred, Trigun, and Trinity Blood were on the front wall, with Read or Die and Xenosaga at his side. "Never did bring in the paper sisters like I wanted, oh well to many characters made their way into this story anyway," he muttered before putting fingers back to keyboard. "If I kill him people will think it's a real downer, despite all the good and positive character changes that would bring about. Now if I reset things, it'll be called a cop out, but the reset arc is always fun to do," he hummed.

Grabbing at his shaggy brown hair, the writer's frustration grew. "Damn it! I hate endings, I tend to butcher the damn things!" he raged. Stopping his self abuse to pet the aforementioned cat on his desk, he was stopped of future debate by a blinding white pain against the back of his head. Grasping at the sudden abuse, "What the hell was that!" His shriek, often accompanied by a failure at some video game or finding his cat had eaten something she shouldn't have, was met with a smack to the face. "Oh…oh fuck I drank to much last night…having visions!" he boggled.

Arm still extended, Washu had a very cross expression on her crab loving face. "Oh you don't know the half if it, but you will if you don't listen," she admonished and grabbed the writer by his flimsy t-shirt. "You and me…and a whole lot of other people have a problem with this proposed ending of yours," she spat out and threw the writer back into his chair, it spun back around to face the monitor.

"You can't be here! You…you're just a fictional character! I've your DVD's on the wrack over there!" the frantic writer pointed at his DVD's. Sure enough Tenchi Muyo was nestled between Sorcerer Hunters and Slayers. "Dreaming I have to be dreaming, to much pizza and booze last night…I want to wake up…OUCH! Stop hitting me!" he whined as Washu slapped him again.

Hopping up on her invisible cushion, Washu floated at the open side of the desk, at the writers left side. "For somebody that believes all works of 'fiction' are simply visions into some parallel world, you have a hard time accepting your own theories," she said snidely. Stopping to pet the cat that was worshipped as some sort of deity by the writer's friends, Washu shooed the creature out of the room and into the apartment proper to spare it from harm. "Now are you going to continue your little freak out, or can we get to business?" she asked as she dusted off the white hairs the cat's departure left on her.

Blinking fast, the writer just tried not to shit himself or cry. "O-ok, so assuming I'm not crazy and this is really happening. What are you doing here, shouldn't you be doing something…I don't know…more important than bugging a computer programmer that wastes his weekends writing fanfiction?" he questioned the floating creature. "And man…anime hair looks odd in reality," he couldn't help but state.

"You always wanted to make a parody of self-inserts, so I, we, figured this would be the ideal time," Washu popped the Hanyuu plush figure off the wall and squeezed it with a grin. "And I'm here to make sure you don't go for either of those 'bad but good' endings. We DEMAND a good ending for as many of us as possible. Since your beliefs fuel us, many of us are lining up to come over here and beat the ever loving tar out of you if you go ahead with your original 'shock' ending," Washu re-hung the plush.

Mind grasping at straws, the writer tried to think of a way to save his skin, as he didn't enjoy pain much. "I uh…sure, I'll go for a more traditional 'everybody is happy' ending and uh…is that good enough?" he asked as an idea popped into his head. If he did go for a happy yet open ending…yes that might work…assuming the community was open to it.

"Oh, you're not thinking dirty things about me are you Writer-kun? Or is that smile for something other than sneaking a peek at me?" Washu flew closer to the writer and pinched his nose painfully yet jokingly. "Do tell what's going on in that mind of yours, as your future peace of mind is very much at stake," she released her hold.

Turning back to his keyboard the writer started typing. "Well after fifty chapters of this story, I feel I've accomplished all I've wanted with it. But its such a neat idea for a universe…if I go for an open and happy ending I could open this up to other writers…better writers to take over and go wherever they want with it! I've set it up and let them do with it what they will! They'd have just about any character they want to work with…to many characters I'll admit…but that way even though I'm done the story doesn't have to end!" he started typing his ending as Washu chuckled behind him.

Scratching the writer behind the ears, "Good pet. But you know you'll never truly be 'done' with this story. Even now I can see it…OVA's and Movies will be your excuse for random updates. Sure you might be done with it officially, but you'll never leave us alone, you like us to much," Washu patted the writer's cheek. "Nice going with me cheating to win that bet too, money is going to go to good use, now get to work!" she smacked the writer on the back of the head and vanished as quickly as she appeared.

"Yeah! I always did write this as episodes of a show…so if the show is over I can write periodic OVA's and a 'movie' if a good idea ever shows up. Done officially, but not shutting the door forever! Oh and…those have a lot more…" the writer giggled to himself. OVA's and Movies didn't have to adhere to sensors as much, meaning they could be a lot more…

"So let's get on about that honeymoon…"

X- Let's shatter that forth wall shall we? –X

It wasn't to say they were spying on Shinji and his entering of a new stage of his life, that shared with Tenchi and Keiichi, but Misato, Hild, and Washu were worried. Misato was worried he'd want to see how she compared to his four wives…and Aisha. Washu wanted to insure nobody got hurt or broke Shinji, and Hild was concerned as a mother. It wasn't every day you learn your son is the physical reincarnation of the creator of the universe.

"And that makes number four for Sasami, girl can really yowl when she lets loose," Misato daintily cleaned her ear out with her pinky. It really was a shocker for her, not only to see Shinji get shot, but mend himself two days ago, and now here she was listening to him and his wives…and fucking Aisha enjoying the fruits of marital bliss. "And it sounds like Aisha is again throwing Asuka around to get the next go…why DID you do that by the way?" Misato asked Washu who was staring off into space for a moment.

Giving the thumbs up to the window, for who knows what reason, Washu just shrugged. "Thought why the hell not, if Ayanami got that last ring I figured why not spice things up," Washu never did need much more reason than 'I was bored' for her to do things anyway. "I'm just glad I rigged that little bet to get our little hero some much needed practice before the real show started," Washu didn't comment on the literal mountain of money stacked up in the corner.

"And those five girls are already petitioning to be married into this little harem, each in turn of their true home planets," Hild swirled her glass of wine around. "Making this a marriage of political interests under the Jurain tradition is going to be odd. Most of them want him as a man not a leader," Hild took a sip. "But he does his mother proud in breaking them. To think Asuka-chan would be the first to be…" she just tittered.

Feeling more than a little anxious as the yelps and moans continued to echo through the very thick wall, Misato groaned in frustration. "I had no idea he was going to be a natural at this. God, I'll have to drug the mansion to get a turn at this rate, and Attim is likely spying on them right now too…waiting for her chance," Misato just sighed. Shinji was going to be the king of the damn universe once the current king retired. With princesses from numerous outer planets lining up to join the alliance of Heaven, Hell, Jurai, and the solar system it didn't hurt that whispers of Shinji's ascendance weren't totally quelled.

It did Misato's heart good to know Shinji remembered nothing of his spat as the creator of all things, he just woke up with Rei sitting at his side with the fifth ring on her finger. The other weddings went off rapid fire, and without another word, and Gendo was currently being held on Misaki's ship for punishment. What a woman that thought of whips as foreplay would consider punishment, Misato didn't want to know.

"And there goes Aisha again, Ctarl-Ctarl must have a hair trigger," Washu checked another box on her score sheet. "I just hope that once the grandchildren start coming…well that they're as meek and accommodating as their father. Can you imagine a child of that hellspawn with half his power?" Washu shuddered.

Clicking her fingers, Hild frowned as another unexpected voice wafted through the wall. "Damn that Morrigan, I told her to wait till tomorrow, oh well no matter," Hild's frown shifted to a grin. "I'll punish her later, and that is proof that my son can and will make good women out of even the most vile and evil of people," she closed her eyes and reclined back into her chair. "But to keep going at each other for a full two days, his birth mother must have had boundless energy," she quipped.

Tugging at her hair, Misato stood up, "That's it! If Morrigan can just waltz in there…" Misato huffed and headed out of the room as she stripped her clothing. She wasn't going to be the last horse to cross the finish line. She had waited longer than most to know what her lover truly felt like. Rei and Kos-Mos were ahead of her, and Rei was already unconscious from it…well Misato was going to have her turn.

It had been a strange, while, and odd journey to this penthouse suite, but Misato wasn't regretting it. Rapping on the door, Morrigan's howling likely kept anybody from hearing it, Misato just opened the door and let herself it. It had been a perfect storm that aligned this little love fest. It had been close to destruction time and time again, yet held true. It was going to be far from a normal relationship, hell with normalicy though. They loved him, he loved them, and wasn't life what you made of it?

The End

X- Hope they were on birth control for the first few months –X

Authors Notes

Yes that is officially the end of this story. I've been writing it for so many years, that its odd to write those words. Some of the bits and pieces got confused or mixed up over the years, you can thank the fact that its been over five years since I started this, and it being a general hodgepodge of stories.

I loved and hated this story at times. It was so fun to write, but once the character roster got to big it was hard going at times. I tried doing that poll to see who to feature, but people just said 'harem' which didn't help, or said I was using it to inflate my reviews.

As I mentioned in my little 'forth wall' breaking moment, I stand before you all to ask or offer as it is, the reigns of this beast I created. Anybody, everybody that feels they want to continue where I left off, have my blessings to do what they want…aside from killing off the cast thank you. Well if done tastefully you can I guess, who am I to stunt your creativity.

Plus as I did hint at, I might from time to time write a little 'OVA' or 'Movie' for this, but its no longer part of my writing itinerary. It'd take something massive to bring me back, as after five years…I'm ready to let my creation go into the wilds and prosper with other people if that's what fate has in store.

I've ideas for more crossovers…oh how I love those things. Plus more original stories that aren't crossovers. Plus I've started writing a second original horror story, hopefully it'll go over better than the first.

So in conclusion. Thank you for staying with me for fifty crazed installments of this oddity of a story. It wasn't always the easiest to write, or read I'll assume, but I'm glad we both got to experience this.

Thank you all

Zentrodie


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